The average American worker with family coverage now pays $7,471 a year toward his health insurance premium, according to KFF’s 2026 Employer Health Benefits Survey, released last week. That is nine percent more than a year ago. It is also the small part of the bill. The full family premium, most of it paid by employers, now averages $28,303. Frédéric Bastiat held that the bad economist sees only what is seen, while the good one accounts for what is unseen. American health care may be his best illustration. The worker sees $7,471. He does not see the roughly $20,800 his employer pays on his behalf, money that would otherwise have reached his paycheck. KFF has estimated that the full cost of a family premium now exceeds 40 percent of a typical salary. No family would shop for groceries by handing over a card and never glancing at the receipt. For medicine, nearly every family does. Then we wonder why the total keeps rising. When @BarackObama signed the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010, the average family premium was $13,770, with workers paying just under $4,000 of it. Both figures have since roughly doubled. Reaching back to 1999, when the family premium stood at $5,791, the increase approaches fivefold. From 1999 to today, consumer prices rose about 93 percent (mostly due to monetary inflation). Hospital services rose 281 percent. The law’s central promise was cheaper premiums. Obama made it again and again: (Read more in the link below)