It seems that with mandates, constantly evolving policies, and looming deadlines, health care nowadays is anything but a light topic of conversation. A much larger portion of your responsibilities involves keeping atop the reform and how adjustments to legislation will impact your school. Changes to your job duties may have caused you to catch yourself shaking your head, wondering why it is again we’re going down this rocky path to launch the Affordable Care Act. It’s certainly a topic that our field advisers face on a daily basis. Politics aside, here are some health care statistics from the past few years that might help shed light on that question. If nothing else, they’ll give you an idea (or a few other ideas) of the critical state our health care system is in.
The following statistics were taken from 50 U.S. Health Care Statistics That Will Absolutely Astonish You by Michael Snyder.
- Over the last decade, the number of Americans without health insurance has risen fromabout 38 million to about 52 million.
- In 1965, only one out of every 50 Americans was on Medicaid. Today, one in every six Americans is on Medicaid.
- According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, “inefficient claims processing” costs the U.S. health care system 210 billion dollars every year.
- According to the American Association of Medicals Colleges, we were already going to be facing a shortage of more than 150,000 doctors over the next 15 years—even before the Affordable Care Act was passed.
- Reports released in 2010 show, Americans spend approximately twice as much as residents of other developed countries do on health care.
- According to numbers released by Deloitte Consulting, a whopping 875,000 Americans were “medical tourists” in 2010.
- According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, health care costs accounted for 9.5% of all personal consumption in 1980. Today they account for approximately 16.3%.
- 41% of working age Americans either have medical bill problems or are currently paying off medical debt.
- Over the past decade, health insurance premiums have risen three times faster than wages have in the U.S.
- In 2009, as the U.S. struggled with recession, health insurance companies increased their profits by 56%.
- Prescription drugs cost about 50% more in the U.S. than they do in other countries.
- Children in the U.S. are three times more likely to be prescribed antidepressants than children in Europe.
- The medical liability system in the U.S. added approximately $55.6 billion to the cost of health care in 2008.
*Protecting your faculty and staff is as important as protecting your students. The foundation of health care is changing in America, and yes, companies and schools alike are facing laws mandating policy alterations—all of which will increase premiums. It has never been more important than it is now to work with a broker and an organization that understands the unique climate of private-independent schools. ISM offers insurance solutions—protection options—to schools of all sizes. We've been working with schools for nearly four decades, consulting, leading, and partnering with them to assure a stable future for generations. We're not just an insurance provider—we’re your 360° Risk Partners.
Additional ISM articles of interest
ISM Monthly Update for Business Managers Vol. 12 No. 1 Employee Benefits You Might Not Think of As Benefits
ISM Monthly Update for Business Managers Vol. 12 No. 1 Ask The Health Care Reform Specialist
ISM Monthly Update for Business Managers Vol. 11 No. 9 Preparing for the Health Care Reform Changes
ISM Monthly Update for Risk Managers Vol. 3 No. 8 Understanding The Affordable Care Act
Private School New Vol. 12 No. 5 Renewing Your Health Insurance Policies Early
