A new survey from the California HealthCare Foundation shows a growing number of employers are dropping health coverage for their workers. The survey reveals rising insurance premiums are really taking a toll.
The survey finds over the last decade, premiums for employer-provided health insurance have jumped by 153 percent. The proportion of companies that offer coverage has fallen by more than 13 percent in the last two years alone.
The California Association of Health Plans maintains insurer profits are not to blame for the rise in premiums. But Doug Heller, with the non-profit group Consumer Watchdog, disagrees.
"That money's goin' somewhere, and you and I and everybody knows it's not stickin' in our pockets, it's goin' right to their bank accounts," Heller argued. "Their premiums have gone up five times faster than inflation. It doesn't make sense, and it's gotta stop."
A measure that would have regulated health insurance rates failed in the state legislature this year.
