Despite the notable slowdown in the pace of economic growth, health insurance premiums have increased at an accelerated rate in 2011, according to the results of a survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Educational Trust.
The results of the survey, released on Tuesday, showed that average annual premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance jumped 8 percent for single coverage to $5,429 and shot up 9 percent for family coverage to $15,073
The pace of growth in family premiums reflects a significant acceleration from the 3 percent growth seen in 2010 but is still slower than the double-digit growth seen in the early 2000's.
Nonetheless, Kaiser noted that the increase in premiums is still notably faster than the 2.1 percent increase in workers' wages and the 3.2 percent increase in general inflation.
The Kaiser survey also found that average annual premiums for family coverage have surged up by 113 percent since 2001.
Opponents of President Barack Obama's healthcare reform legislation sought to use the survey as an opportunity to attack the law.
Senator Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said, "As this survey shows, the President's promise that his partisan health law would lower costs was just empty rhetoric."
"The fact is employers aren't hiring, in large part, because they have to spend more and more money on health insurance," he added. "This drag on employment will only increase when the health law is fully in place with its destructive employer mandate."
Hatch, who has spearheaded efforts to repeal the healthcare law, claimed dismantling the law would help job creators, get the economy moving and put the American people back to work.
However, Drew Altman, President and CEO of the Kaiser Foundation, said that the health reform law had only a modest impact on premiums in 2011, noting that most of the law's provisions don't go into effect until 2014.
"Critics of the national health reform law passed in 2010 like to blame everything but the weather on 'Obamacare,' but regardless of how you feel about the Affordable Care Act, its effect on premiums this year is modest," Altman wrote.
Additionally, a White House blog written by Deputy Chief of Staff Nancy-Ann DeParle claimed that the higher premiums reflected incorrect assumptions about significantly higher medical costs and higher costs associated with the health reform law.
"In the end, both assumptions were wrong - but insurance companies still charged high premiums and earned impressive profits," DeParle wrote.
She added, "The Kaiser report is informative, but it's a look backwards. When we look to the future, we know that the Affordable Care Act will help make insurance more affordable for families and businesses across the country."
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