Out-of-pocket health costs up 34 percent

BETHESDA, Md., June 3 (UPI) -- U.S. adults with employer-provided health coverage faced an average $729 in out-of-pocket costs for deductibles and co-payments in 2007, researchers said.

The study, authored by researchers from the National Opinion Research Center and Watson Wyatt Worldwide for The Commonwealth Fund, found that employees' annual out-of-pocket healthcare expenses increased by 34 percent from 2004 to 2007.

In 2007, adults with employer coverage paid an average of $729 in out-of-pocket expenses for medical services, the study said.

"The years from 2004-2007 were a period of economic expansion, yet rising healthcare costs still eroded the value of employer-sponsored coverage," lead author Jon Gabel, a senior fellow at National Opinion Research Center in Bethesda, Md., said in a statement.

"Historically, employees have been asked to shoulder even more of the cost-sharing burden during difficult economic times such as the United States is now experiencing. Hence, it is imperative that healthcare reform include constraints on health spending, or else health insurance will become unaffordable for low- and middle-income Americans, and reform itself will be unsustainable."

The study was published online in the journal Health Affairs.