Obamacare’s Impact on Health Costs - East Idaho News
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Obamacare’s Impact on Health Costs

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Getty 062812 HealthTax?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1377093046345Creatas/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — What is Obamacare doing to the cost of health insurance premiums?  So far, not much.

The closely watched annual survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation says the average price increase was 4 percent for family plans and 5 percent for individuals.  That’s similar to the rise in the last few years, and well below the average price increase during the 1990s and 2000s, when the cost of health care coverage was soaring.

The survey of more than 2,000 employers finds that over 90 percent of firms with 50 or more workers offered health care benefits and 57 percent of all companies offered some kind of coverage, which is “statistically unchanged” compared to 2012.

One thing that is changing, however, is the cost of health care coverage, which is still rising faster than inflation.  Since 1999, average premiums have tripled while consumer prices rose 40 percent.

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