While Covered California bathes in the glow of positive press today for only increasing its 2016 rates by 4 percent on average, what few are mentioning is that healthcare costs are slowly shifting from employers and insurance companies to policyholders. The hidden costs, like deductibles and out-of-network expenses, are forcing policyholders to dig into their own pockets to pay for medical care.
A recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey showed that 44 percent of Covered California policyholders already have difficulty paying health insurance premiums, while the Urban Institute found that, among insured adults, those with higher deductibles also have more problems paying medical bills. This leads inevitably to people putting off needed care as long as possible. Consumers across the country who have private health insurance and report putting off medical treatment because of cost has increased from 25 percent in 2013 to 34 percent in 2014, according to a Gallup Poll.
