NH Senate budget will continue shifting health
care costs onto working families
Report: Health insurance premium of average working family
in NH includes $805 for "uncompensated care"
Read
or download "Paying a Premium: The Added Cost of Care for the Uninsured"
on the Families USA site
Read or download New
Hampshire fact sheet from the report (PDF)
June 8, 2005
The state budget proposed by the New
Hampshire Senate will continue to shift the costs of the health care
system onto working families and small businesses, according to the
Children's Alliance of New Hampshire.
In New Hampshire, premiums for employer-sponsored family health coverage
cost an extra $805 to cover the health care expenses of uninsured people,
according to a report released today by the health consumer organization
Families
USA.
The report, "Paying
a Premium: The Added Cost of Care for the Uninsured," projects
that this additional cost of family coverage in NH will rise to $1,356
in 2010. It says premiums for workers with individual health insurance
coverage will cost an additional $252 this year and $375 in 2010.
Nationally, the report found that people who lack health insurance pay
for approximately one-third (35 percent) of their health care costs.
Of the remaining costs, often referred to as “uncompensated care,”
one-third is paid for by federal, state, and local governments. The
remaining two-thirds is added to the insurance premiums of people who
have health coverage through their workplaces. In New Hampshire, those
premiums include a much-higher ratio -- 84.3% -- of uncompensated care
costs than in other states.
As health insurance premiums rise many businesses, particularly smaller
ones, must pass the price increases on to their workers or cut back
on raises and/or other benefits. Some are forced to drop or severely
limit coverage for their workers.
Children's Alliance of NH President Ellen Shemitz said the Senate budget
will worsen all of the above problems by shifting even more uncompensated
costs onto working families and employers. At the urging of Health and
Human Services Commissioner John Stephen, Senate leaders propose to
(1) reduce the number of children covered by the Healthy Kids insurance
program, (2) cut $13 million from the amount NH pays hospitals for caring
for people who have little or no health insurance, and (3) forfeit $13.7
million in federal health care funds.
"The Families USA report quantifies how government policy and budget
decisions affect families,” Shemitz said. She recommended that
NH invest in, rather than cut, cost-effective government health programs
like Healthy Kids and Medicaid. Greater state investment in these programs
would ensure that more children and families are covered, increase federal
participation and spread the remaining costs of uncompensated care more
widely.
Ron Pollack, Executive Director of Families USA, said, “The large
and increasing number of uninsured Americans is no longer simply an
altruistic concern on behalf of those without health coverage but a
matter of self-interest for everyone. … The stakes are high both
for businesses and for workers who do have health insurance because
they bear the brunt of costs for the uninsured.”
“This report underscores the importance of strengthening and protecting
public programs such as Medicaid that are the health safety net for
millions of Americans,” said Pollack. “Medicaid cuts would
only force more and more families into the ranks of the uninsured–thereby
increasing insurance premiums for everyone who has health coverage.”
The Families USA report was based on data compiled by Dr. Kenneth Thorpe,
Robert W. Woodruff Professor and Chair of the Department of Health Policy
and Management, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, and
the data are derived from the U.S. Census Bureau, the federal Agency
for Healthcare Research and Quality, the National Center for Health
Statistics, and other sources.
------------------------
Contacts:
Children's Alliance of NH: Ellen Shemitz, President, or Steve Varnum,
Public Policy Director, (603) 225-2264
Families USA: Geraldine Henrich, (202) 628-3030.
