An article in the NY Times’ Economix by UWE E. REINHARDT reports on the Kaiser Family Annual Survey findings on the cost of health insurance: “The survey in question is the Kaiser Family Foundation’s annual survey of employment-based health insurance, widely viewed as a gold mine for anyone seeking information on that part of the American health system. The full report is easily accessible, or readers may prefer to read just the summary or browse through the fine group of charts the foundation provides. Here is a telling chart from that pack.”

This chart, shows the costs (not controlled for inflation–i.e. current dollars) over time and doesn’t compare benefit packages–so there are some caveats here. If I was assigning a research project, I would ask students to look at the rate of inflation over this same time period and look at rates of change, to see whether the insurance premiums have tracked with inflation. Alternatively, I could ask students to to convert these to constant dollars, so that the rate of inflation is controlled and therefore can be compared.

To read the NY Times post: Click Here