2008 Health Insurance Survey of California Farm and Ranch Operators: Who Experiences Financial Hardship Because of Health Care Costs?
Photo courtesy Megan Klugh, Davis Life Magazine
California’s farm and ranch families are paying top dollar for inadequate health insurance that leaves them at financial risk. While nine in 10 farm and ranch operators have health insurance, one in five reported that insurance premiums and other out-of-pocket health care costs are causing financial problems and eating up large percentages of their income. Farm and ranch operators are especially hard hit because they are often forced buy insurance on individual, non-group market, where insurance costs more and covers less.
Unaffordable insurance premiums and medical bills can seriously threaten any family’s financial stability. But in the case of America’s hard-working farm families – the backbone of our nation – it can also affect the viability of their businesses and of the rural economies in which they operate. Among those who said healthcare costs contributed to financial problems, many delayed farm or ranch investments or had difficulty paying off business loans because of these costs.
The study provides useful information for policymakers as they think about health care reform. The findings show that rising healthcare costs have become a serious problem even for the middle-class, especially for those who are self-employed or run small businesses. They raise questions about proposals that rely on the non-group market to expand insurance coverage, a market that has not yet demonstrated that it can provide coverage that is both affordable and of high quality. And for those who suggest requiring people without insurance to purchase it on the non-group market, it highlights the importance of defining affordable coverage in ways that include all of the costs of coverage, and not just the costs of the premiums, and limiting the percentage of income people can be required to spend on health care.
Read the press release
Read about individual farmers and ranchers experience with health insurance and how the costs are causing them financial hardship
Key facts from the report
