WASHINGTON — Employees may have to pay more for their healthcare expenses as large businesses make changes to their employee healthcare plans in order to comply with the healthcare reform law, according to a new report.
The report was released Wednesday by the National Business Group on Health (NBGH), which represents large employers on healthcare issues. The group surveyed 72 large employers representing about 3.7 million employees, and asked about medical claims costs for 2010 and projected claims costs for 2011.
The findings showed that about 63% of businesses plan to make employees pay a higher percentage of their premium costs in 2011. In addition, 46% will increase out-of-pocket maximums, while 44% will increase in-network deductibles.
s a result of those higher costs to patients, providers may see patients start asking more questions about the necessity of some procedures, NBGH president Helen Darling told reporters Wednesday.”What we hope, and we do see evidence of this, is that people will be asking tougher questions of what’s being done for or to them,” she said. “If the provider says, ‘We have to do an MRI,’ and the patient asks, ‘What will that do for my treatment?’ and the provider says, ‘Nothing, but we want to have additional information,’ then the patient may say, ‘Then I don’t want it.’”
The companies surveyed projected that the cost of providing healthcare benefits to their employees will rise an average of about 9% in 2011, which is about 2 percentage points higher than the 7% average increase for 2010.
So the affordable healthcare plan for all Americans is one that involves people paying for healthcare costs that they never had to before? Excellent idea…………
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