Farmers and Ranchers Incur Higher Health Insurance Bills
According to the Bismarck Tribune, Farmers and Ranchers dish out a lot more money on health insurance than the other Americans. Many do so even at the instance of struggling to pay premiums. This information is based on a report from the Access Project, a Boston based health advocacy group.
Farmers and Ranchers spend more than $7000 a year on health insurance for their families according to this report. If the health insurance costs grow greater than 10% of income this is an indicator of excessive burden of health insurance. Many people studied were under such a burden.
The sample used in the study were from Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota and were all farmer and rancher families. In these states there is another problem. Insurance has to be purchased on the individual market rather than as an employer provided group plan.
36 percent of the sample bought individual health insurance compared to only 8% of Americans. Because the burden is so high many are underinsured or uninsured. Health insurance is the new highest expense in ranching. There have been a suggestion that ranchers should be allowed to deduct health insurance costs from their taxable income.
