Health Care Costs Continue To Rise

Yesterday we commented on an evaluation of proposals to control health care costs with John Kerry's proposals being more meaningful than the Republican plans. Today the Washington Post looks at health care costs. While those with lower incomes have been more likely to be unable to afford insurance in the past, it is feared that more in the middle class will be unable to afford insurance:

Health spending by privately insured Americans rose 8.2 percent in 2004, virtually the same increase as the previous year, according to analysts at the Center for Studying Health System Change, a nonpartisan research group.

More significantly, for the eighth straight year the growth in medical costs far outpaced the growth of wages -- by nearly four times in 2004 -- a trend that suggests more Americans will be unable to afford their health insurance, said the group's president, Paul Ginsburg.