Health Insurance Costs to Skyrocket by 10% in U.S. in 2010

A recent national healthcare trend survey from Buck Consultants projected double-digit rate increases for health insurance in the U.S. The study analyzed responses from over 100 health insurers and HMOs. Insurers providing medical trends for the survey cover a total of approximately 78 million people. Costs for the most popular medical plans are projected to increase by more than 10 percent. Rate increases for health insurance plans are supposed to increase 11.1% for Preferred Provider Organizations (PPOs) 11.1%, 10.9% for Point-of-service (POS) health plans, 10.3% for HMOs, and 10.3% for High Deductible Consumer Driven Health Plans. In 2009 average cost of health insurance for an individual in the US was $4,824, and for a family $13,375. With an average of over 10% rate increases per year by 2020 this means the cost of health insurance per year could be as high as or higher than $13,763 for an individual and $38,160 for a family per year. Now that healthcare reform has died, US health insurance carriers and employers are going to turn faster to medical tourism as a solution to reduce healthcare costs as the US healthcare crisis continues to worsen.