Wages for most American workers have hardly budged over the past two decades, and a major culprit behind that stagnation is the soaring costs of employer-sponsored health insurance plans that some 2020 Democratic presidential candidates have defended on the campaign trail.
“Some Democratic contenders believe that a broad swath of the American public JUST LOVES employer-provided healthcare and the dizzying array of deductibles, co-pays, exclusions, humiliations, and rationing of care that comes with it.”
—Bill Lueders, The Progressive
That’s according to an analysis published Monday by Axios, which found that the average cost of employer-sponsored health insurance plans grew by 121 percent between 1999 and 2017. Median household income grew by just two percent during the same period.
“In 1999, the average health insurance coverage for a family consumed 14 percent of the average household income,” Axios reported, citing inflation-adjusted figures from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Kaiser Family Foundation.
“By 2017, family coverage absorbed more than double that amount, to about 31 percent of take-home pay,” according to Axios. “Health insurance has hovered consistently around 31 percent of household income since 2012, as companies shifted their employees to plans that had steady premiums but higher deductibles and out-of-pocket costs.”
Graphics produced by Axios illustrate the extent to which healthcare costs are swallowing workers’ wages:
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DSA for Medicare for All, the single-payer campaign of the Democratic Socialists of America, pointed to the Axios analysis on Tuesday as yet another reason to move to a Medicare for All system that eliminates the costly private insurance plans that are eating away at workers’ paychecks while generating major profits for corporations.
“As healthcare costs escalate, wages remain stagnant,” tweeted DSA for Medicare for All. “Winning Medicare for All means abolishing the parasitic private insurers that generate unprecedented inequality in our society.”
Former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), and other opponents of Medicare for All who are vying for the Democratic presidential nomination claim Americans like their employer-sponsored insurance and don’t want to give it up for a government-run plan.
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