Healthcare Financial News

Americans who get health insurance for their families through their jobs have seen their premiums increase 10 times faster than their income in recent years, according to a new analysis of government data. The study, released April 29 by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), shows that a growing share of workers’ earnings is being absorbed by the increasing cost of health insurance. Nationwide, the amount employees pay for family coverage increased 30 percent from 2001 to 2005, while family policyholders’ incomes increased just 3 percent over the same period. The analysis was conducted by researchers at the University of Minnesota.

The researchers found that the average cost of family coverage increased from $8,281 in 2001 to $10,728 in 2005. The percentage of family premiums that employees pay held steady at about 24 percent. The amount that workers pay for family premiums, on average, increased from $1,921 in 2001 to $2,585 in 2005. Meanwhile, the median income of people who hold family health insurance policies increased just $1,250 during the same period. The average cost that employers pay for their share of family coverage increased 28 percent during the period.

The report is being released during Cover the Uninsured Week, a nonpartisan campaign organized by RWJF to advocate for health coverage for all Americans. Read the report.

The United States faces an impending shortage of generalist physicians to provide primary care for adults, according to a study published April 29 as a Health Affairs web exclusive.

By 2025, the nation will be short 35,000 to 44,000 adult care generalists practicing family medicine and general internal medicine, say researchers from the University of Missouri-Columbia and the Department of Health and Human Services. However, the researchers project an adequate supply of generalist care for children provided by physicians practicing family medicine and general pediatrics.

The researchers make several recommendations to address the impending shortage of adult generalist care that they document. Most important, they say, is modifying reimbursement to foster development of the medical home models put forward in various forms by the generalist physician specialties. The authors also note that shortages could be alleviated if interventions produced four additional generalist graduates in each family medicine and internal medicine residency program annually. Read the abstract.