The Enterprise of Brockton, Mass.
www.enterprisenews.com
Keith Lapides of Easton has two words to describe the rising cost of health insurance: It stinks.
Lapides, 51, is self-employed and has to pay the full price of the insurance himself — a cost he says has doubled in the past decade.
The current cost to insure his family of four: $1,400 per month.
"Insurance gets paid first," said Lapides, who owns Easton-based E & K Trucking. "You cut out your luxuries to make sure it gets paid."
Experts say the soaring cost of health care is straining people's finances like never before.
In Massachusetts, the average employee contribution for a family health plan is 77 percent higher than in 2001 — even though inflation has grown just 20 percent in that time.
The average monthly insurance cost jumped from $172 to $305 per month during that period for a family, according to the state Division of Healthcare Finance and Policy.
"It's crazy," said Carol Schneider of Bridgewater, a nurse at Boston Medical Center.
"But I consider myself lucky, compared to what I see other people paying," said Schneider, 46, who pays $450 per month to insure her family of four.
Employees on individual insurance plans have been hit even harder. Their average contribution has nearly tripled since 2001, from $40 to $114 per month.
There are many reasons for the spike, experts say.
The huge growth in new health care technologies hasn't been cheap, said Craig Higgins, chair of the health care administration department at Stonehill College in Easton.
"Commercial hospitals and teaching hospitals are always going to want the best technology, because it means better quality care,
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