My share of my health care premium through work is going up 50% next year. I think this is part of a nationwide trend.
Things have become essentially more financially unmanageable for the middle class in the past few years in the United States. I don't know how I'd manage if I were still raising kids. The policy I chose this open enrollment has a $4000 deductible and lots of copays. There's a $500 deductible on prescription coverage.
Activists talk about lack of access for the underclass, but I strongly disagree with that. In my area they freely use the ER as a clinic. The working and middle classes also sometimes need to resort to this because of lack of healthcare availability, although getting stuck with a big bill.
I see a lot of middle class young people choosing to not have children. It's irritating to see some our irresponsible segment of the population with lots of kids at a young age, subsidized partly or totally by the government, and hardworking people struggling to pay insurance premiums. My son and his wife just got stuck with a $4000 bill for the birth of their second child, way more than the first, my son told me.
Add to that the out of control housing costs, a lot of which is being fueled by the real estate speculation by the more well to do segment of the population, and I think we'll be seeing the middle class squeezed out of existence.
