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What Does It Take for a Family to Afford to Pay for Health Care? |
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Discussions of affordability often focus on the "typical" family or individual, but many families' health care expenses are much higher than this "typical" value or vary from year to year. Families may have low health costs most years, but risk incurring higher costs in the future in the event of an accident or serious illness. Because of this variation, policymakers should take into account whether health care is affordable not only for the "typical" Californian, but also for families and individuals with higher than average expenses in any given year. The CBP's Basic Family Budget estimates that a single adult needs an income of just over $24,000 to pay for necessities such as housing and food before taking into account premium contributions or out-of-pocket costs for health care. One-quarter of privately insured families of three -- those with costs at or above the 75th percentile -- pay $5,571 or more in annual health costs. Among families of three, 10 percent have out-of-pocket costs of $3,586 or more, which is more than six times the amount spent by the typical family of three. Costs for families of four are even higher. These families account for a large number of Californians: approximately 24,000 families of three and 260,000 families of four with private coverage have health costs in the top 10 percent of the cost distribution. Single adults fare no better than families when it comes to yearly health care costs; some individuals are paying more than six times the amount spent by the typical single adult for out-of-pocket costs.
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