In Oregon's individual health insurance market, costs still worrisome OregonLive.com
It hurt enough, Carol Gundlach says, when her health insurance premium jumped 27 percent two years ago. Then last year the cost climbed another 18 percent. Now she's facing a 45 percent increase, a result of inflation and the fact she's about to turn 60 and move into a more expensive age bracket."I can't afford to pay it at my current salary. What am I supposed to do? I am stuck," says Gundlach, a self-employed consultant and grant-writer who lives near Yachats.
Before boosting the price of health insurance sold to individuals and small employers, insurers must get state approval. Still, thousands of Oregonians have paid increases of 20 percent or more in recent years. The cost of family coverage in Oregon more than doubled from 2000 to 2009, four times the rate of income growth, according to an analysis last year by the advocacy group Families U.S.A.
Under the new federal health reform law, insurance exchanges starting in 2014 are supposed to create a more affordable
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