West.(Regional News)(Health insurance industry)(The California Department of Insurance plans )(Cancer Treatment Centers of America )(Report)

Modern Healthcare, August, 2007

LOS ANGELES-Affordability should be a key component of any meaningful healthcare reform because middle-class families are already struggling to meet basic healthcare expenses, said a report by the University of California at Los Angeles and the California Budget Project, issued last week. A California family of four needs an annual income of $61,950 just to afford typical healthcare costs, such as premiums and copayments, the report found. The typical two-parent, insured family of four spends nearly $1,800 on annual premiums and $1,000 in out-of-pocket costs while a single adult spends $800 on premiums and $350 on out-of-pocket costs a year, according to the survey. A family of four earning twice the federal poverty rate, which would be $41,300 in 2007, has few or no...

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