Healthcare costs squeezing the insured

WASHINGTON, May 4 (UPI) -- Even the insured are being squeezed by escalating healthcare costs in the United States, data show.

Many Americans are unable to meet their share of medical costs under their health coverage now that the U.S. economy is beginning to slow, The New York Times reported Sunday.

The newspaper said many of the roughly 158 million Americans covered by employer health insurance are struggling to meet medical costs because of higher premiums, less extensive coverage, and more expensive deductibles and co-payments.

"It just keeps eating into people's income," James Corbin, a former union official in Texas, said of medical expenses for even the insured.

Corbin said under his employer's health plan, he and his co-workers pay up to $4,000 of their families' annual medical bills in addition to about $1,600 a year in premiums.

Five years ago, they paid no premiums and were responsible for only about $2,000 of their families' medical bills.

"That's a big jump," he said. "You've just lost a month's pay."

But may companies see little choice other than to require their employees to pay more of their healthcare-related expenses, said Ted Nussbaum, a benefits consultant at the firm Watson Wyatt Worldwide.