A person on the internet started explaining on Twitter that no one pays $22,000, or even near to that, for health insurance premiums. “I flatly do not believe you that you are paying $22k in premiums,” he wrote.
Then the internet started to explain how wrong he is.
“My husband and I had an Obamacare gold plan and it went up to $1390/month for two people. For family of 4, I can believe that amount. When the tax penalty came off, we switched to the private market & paid $690/month for similar coverage. Now I’m on employee coverage”
Another: “I can assure you I am paying $1500/month for an ACA silver plan for 2 people. That’s with subsidy. It would be $2300 without.”
Another: “For a family with children, $1900 / month is absolutely the norm if you buy insurance on the exchanges.”
$23,968 premium
“The average annual premium for employer-sponsored health insurance in 2023 is $8,435 for single coverage and $23,968 for family coverage,” a Kaiser Family Foundation study recently said.
“The average annual single premium and the average annual family premium each increased by 7% over the last year. Comparatively, there was an increase of 5.2% in workers’ wages and inflation of 5.8%. The average single and family premiums increased faster this year than last year (2% vs. 7% and 1% vs. 7% respectively).
“Over the last five years, the average premium for family coverage has increased by 22% compared to an 27% increase in workers’ wages and 21% inflation.”
Further bolstering the point, the Commonwealth Fund recently released a study about how unaffordable healthcare is.
“Large shares of insured working-age adults surveyed said it was very or somewhat difficult to afford their health care: 43 percent of those with employer coverage, 57 percent with marketplace or individual-market plans, 45 percent with Medicaid, and 51 and percent with Medicare,” the study said.
“Many insured adults said they or a family member had delayed or skipped needed health care or prescription drugs because they couldn’t afford it in the past 12 months: 29 percent of those with employer coverage, 37 percent covered by marketplace or individual-market plans, 39 percent enrolled in Medicaid, and 42 percent with Medicare.”
$20,000 premium, $15,000 deductible
Philip Greenspun, who says he’s “an MIT teacher,” replied: “We shopped for Obamacare policies in January 2023. With two kids, the cheapest policy was $20,000 per year with a $15,000 deductible and it didn’t cover any of the facilities where you’d want treatment. A plan with no deductible was $66,000/year and still didn’t cover care at the major local providers. No dental coverage either. Screen shots in the link below. https://philip.greenspun.com/blog/2023/01/15/shopping-for-health-insurance-on-healthcare-gov/…“
Carson Krow wrote: “You’re misinformed. Because Obama didn’t put a cap on premium cost, his requiring everyone to use his insurance or pay almost a $2k in fines every year created a monster. Premiums went from $3-400 per month to over $2k per month. Also, GA & TN didn’t expand their Medicaid to insure the ones who didn’t make enough $ to pay the premiums. He absolutely ruined health insurance. I have never seen so many people without insurance as I have since Obamacare.”
Jesse Gardner wrote: “Believe what you’d like. When I was self-employed back in 2019, I paid $1900/month for a family of 6 on a silver plan. Yes, that was almost my monthly mortgage payment.”
Alli Worthington wrote: “Self employed. $2,900/mo premiums for family of six. 17k deductible w a “less expensive” BCBS plan in TN. Insurance pays *nothing* until I spend 17k on top of the $34,800 a year in premiums.”
So what’s going on out there?
It is possible that the person who originally tweeted is one of the fortunate people who has a big part of his premium covered by an employer. It’s also possible that he regrets posting. The tweet ultimately collected 1,600 replies, most noting how wrong he is.
Lankychris wrote: “I hope you are paying attention to all the people pointing out that paying $2k a month in premiums is common. In a recent study that was published by Bloomberg, it is documented that average cost for family health coverage in the US now tops $20,000 per year. That comes out to $1,667 per month for a family. https://bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-25/why-is-health-insurance-so-expensive-20-000-a-year-for-coverage#xj4y7vzkg“
David Razin wrote: “Wow—you are totally oblivious to the reality of what the cost of insurance is (and how much it has *increased* with ACA, contrary to what what promised (which of course the enlightened knew). We’re now MANDATED to buy bloated insurance; we pay over $3,750/mo for a family. Fact.”
Eva-TXLakeGirl wrote: “We pay over $2K a month for my family of four with a $5K deductible, no copay & PPO (no vision or dental) It’s absolutely a thing, especially for small business owners & the self employed bc there is no corporate discount.”
Alex Berenson wrote: “You flatly don’t know what you’re talking about. In NYS, good-not-great coverage for two adults, three kids is 2750/month, 33K a year. I know. I write a check every month. That’s what health insurance in the US costs without government subsidies.”
NYCParent wrote: “I can concur. Which is why we are uninsured. We’re a fit family who now relies on CityMD for emergencies.”
ChiefofTheGreatNorthernTribe wrote: “Yep. We pay $36k annual in premiums plus $10k deductible. 2 healthy adults and 2 healthy kids. WA state. Prior to Obamacare premiums were $9k annual for us.”
RajMisraDo wrote: “3200/month (@UHC ) for 2 adults, 3 kids in WA state, with a 5k deductible, 7500 out of pocket max.”
After a day or two, the original Tweeter acknowledged he was wrong: “I am going to admit to being incorrect on this one. Clearly, there are people who pay this much (especially the self-employed).”
