Healthcare Costs Continue to Cripple Millions Into Poverty

Throwing a wet rag on Tuesday's news that median income was up for the first time in nearly 10 years is the fact that health care costs continue to be an albatross for millions of Americans, CBS News reports.

Taking into account something called the Supplemental Poverty Measure, 11.2 million more Americans are considered living in poverty than in 2015, according to CBS News.

It's a Catch-22 crippling the pocketbooks for millions — nearly 91 percent of Americans are now insured, thanks to Obamacare, but with that comes the enormous costs of having health insurance:

• Premiums;
• Co-pays;
• Prescriptions, etc.

Tuesday's report from the Census Bureau glossed over all that.

Median household income went up 5.2 percent in 2015 to $56,500, the first increase since 2007. And the Bureau's report said the poverty rate declined by 13.5 percent since 2014.

But the Supplemental Poverty Measure shows that's not the reality for millions of Americans.

"What's complicating the scenario here is that when you give people access to insurance, especially affordable insurance, you may have people paying more out of pocket for health care than they did before they had coverage," Matt Broaddus, research analyst with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, told CBS News.

• Krauthammer: Trump's Child Care, Maternity Plan 'Out-Democrats the Democrats
• Trump Tells It Like It Is to Blacks