Apr. 24--NEW HAVEN -- As the cost of health care increases for state families, putting off reform is an unaffordable option, according to a new study.

The nonpartisan New America Foundation's report projects what lies ahead in terms of premiums and deductibles.

A telephone conference with members of the foundation was arranged by the Universal Health Care Foundation.

Elizabeth Carpenter, a health care policy expert with the New America Foundation, said its role is to produce the numbers on health care costs, but not to take a position on solving the problem.

Carpenter said however, that it has reached a conclusion: "Inaction will impact the economy, affordability and the quality of (health) care."

The report, written before current economic woes, said the economy loses hundreds of billions of dollars each year due to the diminished health and shorter lifespan of the uninsured. Rising health care costs also undermine the ability of firms to compete and makes health insurance more unaffordable for more families.

"We must reform our struggling health system not in spite of our economic crisis, but rather because of the impact it has on the American economy," the report states.

Carpenter calculated the U.S. lost $130 billion in productivity in 2001 given the shorter lifespans and poor health of the uninsured, a number that increased to $207 billion by 2007, a figure that she said would cover the public costs of insuring all Americans.





It concluded that the loss in Connecticut productivity in 2007 was $2 billion, or $6,126, per uninsured costs, the third highest in the country. As Connecticut's unemployment rate reaches 7.5 percent, and the cost of health costs rise faster than wages, the most dramatic projections in the report were around premium costs.

In 2016, Carpenter said, in the U.S., the average cost of employer-sponsored health insurance for a family will reach $24,000, up 84 percent from $13,244 in 2008. Connecticut's jump will go from $14,300 to $25,000.

The average copayment in Connecticut is projected to go from $22 in 2008 to $36 by 2016; the average deductible from $1,733 to $3,672.

Carpenter said the projections are based on historical data, not taking into account the current economic state.

The Universal Health Care Foundation has proposed a public insurance plan that would compete in the private market. Known as Sustinet, it would roll out over six years, with an administrative framework established in the first two years. Cost increases of $950 million to boost physican reimbursements and to underwrite coverage for those who can't afford insurance would start in 2014.

The Connecticut Business and Industry Association, which also sells insurance, likes the portion that would provide a medical home for all users, as well as the emphasis on electronic medical records. However, it opposes folding employers who join it into one self-insured state pool and feel it is a bad time for such a public investment.