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Strategies & Market Trends : Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: mishedlo who wrote (18851)	12/17/2004 10:21:59 AM
From: Chispas	Respond to of 116555

Average wages down and health plans UP : .... ... ... ... ... ... ... CALIFORNIA Health plan preference raises premium cost At $834 a month, insurance in state now above average - Victoria Colliver, Chronicle Staff Writer Friday, December 17, 2004 California has lost its edge when it comes to having lower health insurance premiums than the rest of the country. Premiums for health coverage paid by California employers in 2004 now slightly exceed the national average, according to a study released Thursday by the California HealthCare Foundation and the Health Research & Educational Trust. California has had cheaper premiums than the national average because of the large number of people enrolled in health maintenance organizations, the least expensive but most restrictive form of managed care. About half of California workers are enrolled in an HMO, compared with about 25 percent nationally. However, a shift of California workers into less restrictive but costlier preferred provider organization plans, or PPOs, combined with rising health costs have pushed up premiums in the state. At $834 a month, the average cost for a family policy in California in 2004 now surpasses the national average of $829. Last year, a family plan in California cost an average of $709 a month, compared with the U.S. average of $756. PPOs increased their market share in California from 29 percent in 2003 to 36 percent this year, according to the study. The price of PPO coverage for a California family increased 17.5 percent over the past year. In addition, the cost gap between HMOs and PPOs continued to widen. The average PPO premium costs $981 a month for a family this year, compared with $721 a month for an HMO. "The annual cost of health insurance for a California family of four is now equivalent to 75 percent of the annual earnings of a fully employed minimum-wage worker," said Jon Gabel, vice president at the Health Research & Educational Trust. "This is one more indicator that the cost of health insurance is prohibitively expensive for many employers and workers." The study, based on a national health-benefits survey of employers released by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation in September, found some encouraging news when it comes to the pace of rising premiums. California health insurance premiums rose 11.4 percent in 2004, a slower increase than last year's 15.8 percent. This year's number is on par with the national rise of employer-sponsored coverage of 11.2 percent. Despites the slowdown, the increasing cost of premiums in California still outpaces the state's inflation rate by about six times. The study's findings were based on a random sample of 790 interviews conducted with employee benefit managers in private California firms. The California Employer Health Benefits Survey 2004 can be found online at www.chcf.org. E-mail Victoria Colliver at vcolliver@sfchronicle.com. Page B - 1 URL: sfgate.com

To: mishedlo who wrote (18851)	12/17/2004 10:46:26 AM
From: CalculatedRisk	Respond to of 116555

REAL EARNINGS IN NOVEMBER 2004 MY COMMENT: Real average weekly earnings decreased 1.6% from Nov 2003 to Nov 2004. Real average weekly earnings decreased 0.4% from Oct to Nov. The TREND continues. The middle class is slowly losing purchasing power from earnings and this should lead to lower aggregate demand. TRANSMISSION OF MATERIAL IN THIS RELEASE IS EMBARGOED UNTIL 8:30 AM EST, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2004 Real average weekly earnings fell by 0.4 percent from October to November after seasonal adjustment, according to preliminary data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor. A 0.1 percent increase in average hourly earnings was more than offset by a 0.3 percent decline in average weekly hours and a 0.2 percent increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). Data on average weekly earnings are collected from the payroll reports of private nonfarm establishments. Earnings of both full-time and part-time workers holding production or nonsupervisory jobs are included. Real average weekly earnings are calculated by adjusting earnings in current dollars for changes in the CPI-W. Average weekly earnings rose by 2.1 percent, seasonally adjusted, from November 2003 to November 2004. After deflation by the CPI-W, average weekly earnings decreased by 1.6 percent. Before adjustment for seasonal change and inflation, average weekly earnings were $534.48 in November 2004, compared with $527.68 a year earlier.