Most people with health insurance have a plan through their employer and it turns out they are paying "more in premiums and deductibles than ever before," according to CNBC.
According to a study by The Commonwealth Fund, heath care premiums for a family increased 73 percent between 2003 and 2013 and employees' contributions rocketed up 93 percent during the same 10 years. Out-of-pocket expenses doubled during that decade.
The average family income only rose 16 percent.
The Affordable Care Act might be a factor in the slowdown of rising costs, but employer-provided insurance costs are still outrunning earned incomes.
Families are "being squeezed by health-care costs," said report co-author and vice president for Health-Care Coverage and Access at the Commonwealth Fund Sara Collins, according to CNBC. "Growth in family income is so slow that people still feel a pinch from health costs."
Fifty-seven percent of Americans (153 million) are covered by employer provided insurance while Medicaid covers 50 million low-income adults and children, according to CNBC.
Employees have had to pay more over the last 10 years. In 2003, half of those with a health plan had a deductable. Now, 81 percent have to shoulder the out-of-pocket costs. The average deductable increased by more than $1,000.
These spikes in cost have slowed down, partially due to a slow economy and effects of "ObamaCare," such as established minimums that employers have to contribute to health plans and penalizing hospitals for readmissions.
The Affordable Care Act has caused an increase in premiums with some components such as allowing children to remain on their parents' plan until age 26 and preventative cost coverage (like no co-payment birth control).
"Despite those changes," Collins said, according to CNBC, "we're seeing an overall leveling off in the rate of growth of premiums. But because incomes have grown so slowly, you still have an [insurance cost] growth rate ahead of income."
