The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act became law in March 2010. When President Obama took office one year earlier, his administration was heralded for its unprecedented technological aptitude. Yet when Healthcare.gov launched in 2013, after three years of work and a cost of more than $300 million, the website crashed. Fewer than 10 individuals were able to enroll on the first day. As noted in an article appearing in the November/December 2023 issue of the journal MIT Technology Review, in the years since then, that particular crash was indicative of massive challenges that the U.S. continues to face when it comes to government use of technology. Reference in the paper is made to Jennifer Pahlka who served as deputy chief technology officer of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy back then. As she explains in her book “Recoding America: Why Government Is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better,” the failed site launch was a reflection of just how big the glaring gap between policy intentions and actual outcomes really is.
She argued that policy implementation has grown so complex and technology often complicates it even further. Technology can be as much a part of the problem as it is part of the solution. Even when technology is promising, its deployment requires money and talent. Budget realities, bureaucratic red tape, election cycles, and ever-growing legal complexities all pose significant challenges. Implementing technology accurately is no simple task, especially when the public is accustomed to easy-to-use interfaces and information management systems from the likes of Apple, Microsoft, and Google. All these factors contribute to having problems with government technology when it has never been more critical to improve government effectiveness.
2023 Employer Health Benefits
Employer-sponsored insurance covers almost 153 million nonelderly beneficiaries. KFF conducts an annual survey of private and non-federal public employers with three or more workers. This 25th survey reflects employer-sponsored health benefits in 2023. It was fielded from January to July of 2023. The average annual premium for employer-sponsored health insurance this year is $8,435 for single coverage and $23,968 for family coverage. Over the last five years, the average premium for family coverage has increased by 22% compared to a 27% increase in workers’ wages and 21% inflation. Most covered workers contribute to the cost of the premium for their coverage. On average, covered workers contribute 17% of the premium for single coverage and 29% of the premium for family coverage, similar to the percentages contributed in 2022. The average annual dollar amounts contributed by covered workers in 2023 are $1,401 for single coverage and $6,575 for family coverage, similar to the amounts last year but greater than five years ago.
Ninety percent of workers with single coverage have a general annual deductible that must be met before most services are paid for by the plan, similar to the percentage last year (88%). The average deductible amount in 2023 for workers with single coverage and a general annual deductible is $1,735, similar to last year. In 2023, among workers with single coverage, 47% of workers at small firms and 25% of workers at large firms have a general annual deductible of $2,000 or more. Over the last five years, the percentage of covered workers with a general annual deductible of $2,000 or more for single coverage has grown from 26% to 31%.
Comprehensive Demographic Profile Of The U.S. Evicted Population
Each year 2.7 million U.S. households receive an eviction filing. A manuscript in the October 10, 2023 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) links millions of eviction court records to Census Bureau data to describe the population of renters facing eviction. Each year, 2.9 million children are affected by an eviction filing, and the typical eviction case filed in America involves one child. Evicted children face increased risk of food insecurity, exposure to environmental hazards, academic challenges, and a range of long-term physical and mental health problems. Despite making up only 18.6% of all renters, Black Americans account for 51.1% of those affected by eviction filings and 43.4% of those evicted. Roughly one in five Black Americans living in a renter household is threatened with eviction annually, while one in ten is evicted.