Consumer costs are becoming the focus of the campaign’s proposals, prompted in part by changes that have companies asking workers to pay a greater share of the cost of coverage. The deductibles patients pay before insurance kicks in climbed about 9 percent this year, and workers now pay an average of $1,077 a year in up-front medical costs for a single-person plan, according to the Kaiser report.
Rising Costs
Since 2010, deductibles have grown 67 percent, while premiums are up 24 percent, according to the report, which was conducted with another research group, the Health Research & Educational Trust.
Clinton’s drug costs plan would limit patients’ out-of- pocket spending on pharmaceutical treatment to $250 a month, or $3,000 a year. Obamacare, also known as the Affordable Care Act, limited total out-of-pocket medical spending to $6,600 a year for an individual, and $13,200 for a family.
Clinton would also give patients three sick-visits to their doctor without having to meet their health insurer’s deductible first, expanding on a provision in Obamacare that requires insurance companies to offer preventive health-care services, like flu shots and annual physicals, without cost-sharing.