The LA Times delighted Lefty health care wonks yesterday with an article entitled Workers’ health insurance costs soar. Here’s the money quote (as it were):
Workers with job-based coverage for their families saw earnings rise 3% from 2001 to 2005, while their health insurance premium contribution increased 30% … The average cost nationally of family coverage during the period increased nearly $2,500, to $10,728 from $8,281.
Man that seems like a big jump. And it would be—-if it were true. But it would appear that the Times has once again proven Jefferson correct:
The quoted figures came from this study, which clearly states (see table 3) that the average employee paid only 24% of the total premium for family coverage.Â
In other words, the average employee paid $1,987 for family insurance coverage in 2001. By 2005, that figure had increased to $2,574.
So, the actual increase paid by employees was $587, or $147 per year. No one wants to pay more for insurance, but this is not the stuff of a Dickens novel.
This reality has not, of course, stopped the usual suspects from quoting this disingenuously written article and tut-tutting about how awful things are.
These are not serious people.


