Health Insurance Costs Went Up 4 Percent This Year

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An annual survey shows the cost of health insurance provided by U.S. employers rose a modest 4 percent this year.

Every year the Kaiser Family Foundation takes a look at the cost of employer-sponsored insurance. Executive Director Drew Altman says family coverage cost 4 percent more this year than last. He says that continues a steady downward trend from the double-digit increases that once were common.

“The most important factor has been the weak economy but there are certainly are other factors,” he says – factors like changes in cost sharing that force workers to bear more of the burden of medical care.

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Altman says this could account for the fact that workers don’t perceive health costs as leveling off. “Year after year after year, what they pay for their share of premiums has gone up at a time when their wages have been flat and in many cases even declining in real terms.”

The Kaiser Family Foundation survey says premiums for family coverage are about $16,300, with the worker paying $4,500 of that. The survey also finds many low-wage workers have smaller premiums than higher wage workers.

But the survey’s author, Gary Claxton, says low-wage earners often are paying more for health care because of high deductible plans and increased cost sharing. “This underscores how much sometimes lower wage workers struggle,” he says. “Even when they’re offered health insurance they still have to pay quite a bit for it.”

Last year, Kaiser says worker wages rose 1.8 percent on average.