The 'scary' rise in health-insurance costs: 5 theories

Thanks to a 9 percent jump in health-care premiums, insuring a family for a year now costs as much as a new Ford Fiesta. What's going on?

Health care costs are sky rocketing with experts saying it will only get worse and if you're looking for someone to blame try President Obama or the free market.
(Image credit: IMAGEMORE CO., LTD/Imagemore Co., Ltd./Corbis)

Health-care premiums shot up 9 percent this year, according to a new survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Education Trust, pushing the annual cost of employer-provided coverage for a family above $15,000 — as much as a new Ford Fiesta. The rate at which costs is growing is "scary," says Sarah Kliff in The Washington Post: Premiums rose 113 percent since 2001 and Kaiser estimates that they'll double again, to $32,175, in the next decade. Why are health insurance costs rising so much faster than, say, wages or inflation?

1. Blame "ObamaCare"

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