Report details how healthcare costs continue to climb in West Virginia

West Virginians who get their health insurance through employer-sponsored programs are paying some of the highest rates in the U.S. for premiums and deductibles, according to a new report from The Commonwealth Fund.

“You’re up in the ranks of a New York, New Hampshire, Connecticut,” Cathy Schoen, executive director of the Council of Economic Advisors for The Commonwealth Fund said.

“For a relatively low-income state, health insurance is very expensive and it’s continued to be so.”

Nationwide, the report showed a slowdown in premium growth in 31 states and Washington, D.C. between 2010 and 2013 — the years since the provisions within the Affordable Care Act started being implemented. While premiums rose at slower rates in those areas, deductibles have also been climbing.

In West Virginia, though, there’s been no slowdown for premium increases through employer-sponsored health insurance programs which have continued to climb at a steady rate, about 6.4 percent annually, since 2010, according to numbers from The Commonwealth Fund.

There’s been no acceleration in premium increases since ACA first started taking effect but, Schoen said, the constant rising costs of health care hit home.

“Since employees pay a share of that — often 20, 25 percent of it — that means the employee is seeing more of their paycheck go to pay their premium and deductibles have nearly tripled in the state of West Virginia (since 2003),” Schoen said.

In 2013, she said, premiums accounted for a 26 percent share of median state incomes — far outpacing income growth.

In 2003, the report data showed annual single health insurance premiums through employer-sponsored programs in West Virginia were an average of $3,809. In 2010, those same premiums were $4,935. By 2013, that number had grown to $5,940.

For families, the report showed premiums in West Virginia were an average of $9,164 in 2003, $14,194 in 2010, when ACA started being implemented, and $17,105 in 2013. The 2013 number was nearly as high as premiums in New York which reported an average family premium of $17,503.

Schoen said the study’s findings lead to a number of questions. “For your policymakers and the questions that the citizens of the state should be asking is what can we do about this? What is underneath this? What is happening to the prices being charged and why have they continued to go up when family incomes are not going up very rapidly?”

In the end, Schoen said, it comes down to one major query: “How do you make care both high quality and affordable in the state of West Virginia?”