Some blame the rising medical costs for the rise in insurance premiums. Some blame unscrupulous insurance companies for being profit driven. Some blame insurance fraud for depleting the funds that insurance companies have. Who’s fault is it exactly, there will never be one party at fault, and it is the combination of multiple factors over the years that contributed to this problem.

Thanks for the post and also read the comments. Great food for thought! I hardly believed that the median income is $50,000. With rising costs of education, hospital bills, inflation and now with higher premiums, the average American is not in the position to actually enjoy the higher median income. If higher hospital bills are turning people to the relatively cheaper insurance premiums, but with rising premiums, what can they turn to next?

The insurance industry strikes again!
  Insurance for health care is basically INvalid - they play almost no useful function in providing health care other than acting as a payment mechanism with a VERY high administrative cost.
  Originally, health insurers had physicians and other providers actually forming their boards and steering committees.  They were typically mutual companies and operated on a nearly non-profit basis.  That’s all changed since the early 80’s - they are now mostly full-blown profit-making engines - MBAs and bean counters are the rule.  There is precious little being done to actually reduce costs of care.  Even physicians are feeling the pinch - being reduced to drones in service to insurers, NOT the government.
There is significant competition in the so-called free market - but that is to gobble up networks of providers into proprietary units contracted to individual mammoth insurers.  And some insurers have near monopolies in many states.
  Ask yourself if the CEO of Wellpoint or Cigna really “earns” 100 times what a top surgeon makes.  What “care” does the insurer provide? When 40% profits are added to health care costs, premiums are bound to leap up. 
  The US could use an extensive analysis of what’s going on elsewhere - as in Switzerland, where private insurers bid on the claims processing components periodically and the government acts as “referee” and national standards of proper care are defined. 
  Except for true catastrophic cases, direct pay to providers might be a less expensive option.  That’s why many large employers are self-insured/

I’m self employed and have been for over 9 years. I
formed a small group with myself, my wife as an
employee and my daughter as my wife’s dependent. The
monthly premium is over $1600 a month. I recently
received a letter from my carrier stating that they
are submitting a request to my state’s health
insurance department to raise my premium by 25%. This
is on top of last year’s 25% increase and an 18%
increase the year before. I can’t afford the
payments. My business is down substantially since the
real estate meltdown and recession. I don’t
understand how our government expects the average
person to survive. We needed a public option. Obama
has betrayed the American people. The politicians of
both parties are nothing more than corporate whores
screwing the average worker.