High Deductible Health Plans

Costs forcing more Americans to select high-deductible health plans.
NBC Nightly News (11/28, story 5, 2:20, Morales) reported, "This is the time of year when millions of Americans are asked to make their annual choices for health insurance. With the cost of healthcare skyrocketing, more and more people are forced to accept deductibles so high they end up paying most of the medical bills themselves." NBC (Costello) discussed a family whose deductible is $7000, with the result that "every doctor visit, every antibiotic every trip to the ER is out of pocket." Costello added, "To contain costs companies are increasingly only offering healthcare plans with sky high deductibles. This year, 18 million Americans are enrolled in high deductible plans compared with 13 million last year. Yet, insured Americans are also going to the doctor less, getting fewer tests and filling fewer prescriptions than a year ago."