Health care costs going up - Short Takes: News at Deadline - Brief Article

Physician Executive, July-August, 2002 by James A. Hawkins

When the federal government, with all its negotiating clout, starts to lose the battle to contain the cost of health coverage for its employees, look out. Everyone is likely to soon be seeing double-digit premium hikes again.

According to Aetna Inc. chief executive John Rowe, his firm's HMO rates will rise by 18 percent nationwide in 2002. Larry Levitt of the Kaiser Family Foundation says that the system looked bad last year and probably will look worse this year. He predicts that premiums will go up faster than they have in a decade. This means that employees are likely to see stronger steps by their employers to contain costs.

These are likely to include higher deductibles, larger co-insurance amounts, and increased used of other cost containment devices such as the dreaded gatekeeper systems that limit patients' access to care.