The head of the Council for Affordable Health Insurance says most U.S. residents who have major medical insurance probably have enough coverage.
Merrill Matthews, executive director of CAHI, Alexandria, Va., has joined the dialogue about whether U.S. residents with health coverage are underinsured, overinsured or perfectly well insured.
Some families now have $10,000 deductibles either because of a voluntary decision to assume more risk or because that is the only kind of coverage they can afford, Matthews writes in a commentary on the topic.
But today U.S. families with extremely high out-of-pocket health care costs are still rare, Matthews writes.
A 2006 study backed by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, Menlo Park, Calif., found that only 1% of U.S. residents spent more than $4,331 on health care in 2003, and only 1% of non-elderly U.S. residents with health insurance spent more than $2,467, Matthews says.
