PSA: Be Prepared for Your Health Insurance Costs to Go Up

I was reading a Wall Street Journal article yesterday that caused me a little pain… in the pocket book. It looks like my health care insurance rates are going up by about 30%. My insurance is from out of state, because the company I work for is from out of state. However, that led me to wonder whether there will be similar impacts for our local insurance companies.

It appears Utahns are going to be hit as well. According to Fox 13, it appears that (given state approval):

• Select Health insurance costs will increase 15.9%
• Blue Cross insurance costs will increase 17.2%
• Humana insurance costs will increase 20.2%
• Altius insurance costs will increase 18.11%

This matters on a number of levels. First, most of us pay a portion of health care costs, even when our company covers most of it. So, there will be more out of pocket expenses to the average person. Second, if you own a company, this will likely hit your bottom line pretty significantly. Third, local government entities like Park City Schools offer insurance for employees. In the case of the schools they pay 100% for family coverage for a full time employee. When the district’s rates rise that means those dollars are tied up in insurance and not in education.

Perhaps this is old news to the community. However, it was news to me … so I wanted to share.