EDITORIAL: Editorial: Soaring deductibles in employee health plans show health system still needs fixing

May 06-- May 6--The never-ending legal wrangling over whether the Affordable Care Act is constitutional should be deeply frustrating to Americans. Many Republicans, including President Donald Trump, have said they agree with Democrats that the government needs to find a way to make sure health insurance is affordable and broadly available. Why can't the parties work together to improve the law?

But the fighting over the ACA obscures the fact that while the law helped millions of people get access to health care, the U.S. system still has big problems -- even for the millions of Americans who get health insurance through their employers. A disturbing study published recently by the Los Angeles Times found that in the last 12 years, "annual deductibles in job-based health plans have nearly quadrupled and now average more than $1,300."

In a nation in which 55 million people have no emergency savings, having deductibles at such levels creates an incentive for people to not seek care when they are sick or injured. A poll the Times conducted with the Kaiser Family Foundation found that half of working-age adults with job-provided insurance had been forced by the cost of health care to delay major purchases or to limit spending on basic goods. Having annual deductibles be so high only exacerbates the problem of income inequality.

According to a 2015 study, the U.S. spends far more of its gross domestic product on health care than most wealthy nations but gets worse health outcomes. It's time to learn from the nations that spend less on health care but get better results.

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