How Booming Industry in the New Southeast is Affecting Health Insurance

If you feel you're one step away from the poorhouse, you may very well be right when it comes to your health insurance.  Throughout the United States, the economic boom that has fueled growth in most industries is not translating to higher wages or benefits (such as health insurance) for most workers.  Quite the opposite, in fact.  For the first time since the early 20th century, a majority in the Southeast are now just one illness from bankruptcy.

This is partly due to the low rate of health insurance coverage.  In the southeast, this trend is even higher than the national average of nearly 16% of citizens and residents.  For instance, health insurance coverage in many areas (even counting inadequate policies) only reaches about 75% of the entire population.  The number with health insurance is abysmally high among working age families, reaching fewer than half of those making less than $30,000 per year (about 1/3 more than the federal poverty level).

For those who are lucky enough to have health insurance, premiums have risen at such a rate that a great many families are forced to rely upon policies that don't actually provide the sort of coverage they need.  Between 2000 and 2005, health insurance premiums nearly doubled across the US, with deductibles climbing ever higher at the same time.

Even with an active health insurance policy, procedures not covered and deductibles compound to break the budgets of many families who would otherwise consider themselves middle-class.  

However, the Southeast is a region that has seen unprecedented growth in recent years, expanding at a rate of nearly 3% per year since 2000.  The boom that some said was over in the late 1990s is showing no sign of slowing down.    As growth continues in cities like Atlanta, the economy has struggled to keep up, with many of the jobs being created paying only low and lower mid-range wages.  Between 2005 and 2006 as many as 15% of those workers lost existing health insurance coverage.

However, the news isn't all grim.  Many states, such as Georgia, have regulatory agencies that dictate how health insurance can be sold in the state.   For instance, in Atlanta, health insurance complaints may be directed to the state Department of Insurance (that also oversees health insurance policies) through an online system.  Even as health insurance premiums rise, there are ways to get back at criminally negligent insurers.

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