Half of Americans With Employer-Based Health Insurance Are Paying More As Obamacare Kicks In

USA - English

• USA - English

NEW YORK, Jan. 8, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- About half (47%) of Americans with employer-based health insurance say more money is being taken out of their paychecks each month for health insurance than a year ago, according to a new Bankrate.com (NYSE: RATE) report. Forty-four percent are experiencing higher out-of-pocket expenses, including deductibles and copayments, compared to one year ago.

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Upper-middle-income Americans with employer-based health insurance (annual household incomes between $50,000 and $74,999) are the most likely to report more money being taken from their paychecks and higher out-of-pocket expenses. Overall, respondents in this group feel the hardest hit by Obamacare. Out of all income levels, they are the most likely to feel that the law has had a negative effect on their health insurance (47%).

While many feared losing family coverage as a result of the Affordable Care Act, very few employers have taken this step (less than one in 10 Americans with employer-based health insurance lost coverage for a spouse or child this year). And only two in 10 Americans with employer-based health insurance now have fewer doctors included in their plans.

"Since so much of the Obamacare conversation has focused on uninsured Americans and the government-run exchanges, it's easy to forget most Americans – about 150 million – get their health insurance from an employer," said Bankrate.com insurance analyst Doug Whiteman. "People covered under these plans should watch for changes and discuss with their employers how Obamacare may affect their coverage and costs.  In some cases, getting insurance through the health exchanges could be more cost–effective, so it is important to research all possibilities."

Additional findings:

• More than half (52%) of females with employer-based coverage report higher out-of-pocket expenses, compared to only 35% of males.
• Forty-eight percent of Americans want to repeal Obamacare and only 38% want to keep it. When Bankrate.com last asked this question (in late September), 46% of Americans wanted to repeal Obamacare and 46% wanted to keep it.
• Americans feeling more negative about the law currently outnumber those feeling more positive by a two-to-one margin (31% to 15%).

These results comprise Bankrate.com's Health Insurance Pulse, a monthly survey that tracks how Americans are feeling about health care and their personal finances. The survey was conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International (PSRAI) and can be seen in its entirety here:

http://www.bankrate.com/finance/insurance/health-insurance-poll-0114.aspx

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PSRAI obtained telephone interviews with a nationally representative sample of 1,005 adults living in the continental United States. Interviews were conducted by landline (500) and cell phone (505, including 245 without a landline phone) in English by Princeton Data Source from December 19-22, 2013. Statistical results are weighted to correct known demographic discrepancies. The margin of sampling error for the complete set of weighted data is plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.

About Bankrate, Inc.

Bankrate is a leading publisher, aggregator, and distributor of personal finance content on the Internet. Bankrate provides consumers with proprietary, fully researched, comprehensive, independent and objective personal finance editorial content across multiple vertical categories including mortgages, deposits, insurance, credit cards, and other categories, such as retirement, automobile loans, and taxes. The Bankrate network includes Bankrate.com, our flagship website, and other owned and operated personal finance websites, including CreditCards.com, Interest.com, Bankaholic.com, Mortgage-calc.com, CreditCardGuide.com, Nationwide Card Services, InsuranceQuotes.com, CarInsuranceQuotes.com, InsureMe, Bankrate.com.cn, CreditCards.ca, NetQuote.com, and CD.com. Bankrate aggregates rate information from over 4,800 institutions on more than 300 financial products. With coverage of nearly 600 local markets in all 50 U.S. states, Bankrate generates over 172,000 distinct rate tables capturing on average over three million pieces of information daily. Bankrate develops and provides web services to over 80 co-branded websites with online partners, including some of the most trusted and frequently visited personal finance sites on the Internet such as Yahoo!, AOL, CNBC, and Bloomberg. In addition, Bankrate licenses editorial content to over 500 newspapers on a daily basis including The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Boston Globe.

For more information:

Caroline Farhat
Publicist
Bankrate, Inc.
[email protected]
(917) 368-8638

SOURCE Bankrate, Inc.