It’s a slow news days, so everyone is highlighting the latest Kaiser report on healthcare costs. Guess what? They’re up!
I don’t have a ton to say on the fact that healthcare costs are increasing, but it’s worth pointing out what this means for household incomes. In the last year, for example, the Census Bureau reports that median household incomes dropped from $49,777 to $49,445. That’s a decrease of 0.7%.
But households also got compensation in the form of healthcare insurance. According to the Kaiser report, the employer share of healthcare premiums increased from $9,773 to $10,994. So let’s add this up:
- 2010: $49,777 + $9,773 = $59,550
- 2011: $49,445 + $10,994 = $60,439
Suddenly, instead of a decrease, we have an increase of 1.5%. Adjusted for inflation, this is still a net loss, but it’s a smaller one: about -1.2% instead of -3.4%. (All numbers are a bit rough since the sampling periods aren’t identical. But they’re probably accurate within a tenth of a point or two.)
Obviously the Great Recession is still taking its toll on household incomes. But so is healthcare. Household cash incomes have dropped considerably over the past decade, and that’s a sign of something seriously wrong with the economy. But it’s also a sign that instead of cash, we’re increasingly taking our compensation in the form of ever more healthcare. That’s probably a bad deal for most of us.
