Unless President Obama and Congress act, the yearly cost of a health care policy is projected to more than double by 2016, according to a new PIRGIM report. The report, “Health Care In Crisis,” found that, even after adjusting for inflation, the average employer-paid family health policy is expected to rise from $11,381 in 2006 to $24,291 by 2016.
“The facts tell us that, left unchecked, health care costs will financially cripple American businesses and families,” said PIRGIM’s federal health care advocate Larry McNeeley. “We need to act now before the problem gets much worse.”
Fortunately, the president placed health care at the top of his agenda, and outlined PIRGIM-backed principles to cut costs and improve care. We support the Obama administration’s cost-containment provisions, such as:
• Giving doctors better access to data on which drugs, devices and procedures work best;
• Investing in better technology to manage and track patient records and test results;
• Creating incentives for more and better preventative care; and
• Creating a public health care plan that would compete for customers with traditional insurers, thus lowering costs for everyone.
