It seems that Americans are fighting against another financial crisis: the unpaid medical bills. Two studies released Wednesday were made by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Center for Studying Health System Change and had been completed earlier this year before the financial markets reached their current state of crisis.

Employer-based health insurance premiums rose this year and now cost $12,680 per year for an average family plan, according to a new national study. Moreover, in order to help slow the costs of health insurance, companies are increasingly offering coverage that requires their workers to pay more of their medical expenses before the insurance will start functioning. Workers are paying about $3,354 a year from their wages to cover their share, double what they paid nine years ago. Health insurance premiums rose only 5 percent this year. All in all the costs have more than doubled since 1999, according to the 10th annual Kaiser Family
Foundation and Health Research & Educational Trust.

The study  was conducted from January to May 2008 and the survey included 2,832 randomly selected companies with three or more employees.

The fact that small businesses pay more for employee health insurance than big firms do, 58% of those with employer health insurance are in PPOs (preferred provider organizations), 20% of those with employer health insurance are in HMOs (health maintenance organizations), or the fact that most drug plans have three- or four-tier co-payment systems. Average co-pay: $10 for first-tier, $26 for second tier, $46 for third tier, $75 for fourth tier; all of these points are among the main facts of the Kaiser survey.