Survey Of Employers Finds Modest Rise In 2015 Health Premiums, But Deductibles Soared
The Kaiser Family Foundation analysis finds that premiums for health insurance family plans offered through a workplace grew about 3 percent. Yet that was partly the result of employers shifting costs to workers through increased deductibles, which have grown nearly six times as fast as wages.
The New York Times:
Workers Pay More For Health Care As Companies Shift Burden, Survey Finds
State health insurance exchanges created under the new health care law are in turmoil. By contrast, the employer market — where the majority of Americans still get their coverage — seems like a bastion of stability. An analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation released on Wednesday shows that the share of employers offering coverage remained steady this year, and that the cost of premiums for health plans remained largely unchanged. (Abelson, 9/14)
The Washington Post:
How Companies Are Quietly Changing Your Health Plan To Make You Pay More
While politicians have been embroiled in a fiery debate over President Obama's signature health-care law, a quiet but profound shift is fundamentally reshaping how health insurance works for the roughly 155 million Americans who receive coverage through their employers. A national survey of employer health benefits released Wednesday shows how much deductibles — the health-care costs that people must pay out of their own pockets before insurance kicks in — have shot up. In 2016, 4 in 5 workers had a deductible as part of their individual coverage, averaging $1,478. During the past five years, deductibles have grown 10 times as fast as inflation and nearly six times as fast as wages, according to the new report. (Johnson, 9/14)
NPR:
Workers' Health-Care Deductibles Are Going Up Again
High deductible health plans are the new normal. Just over half of employees this year have a health insurance policy with a deductible of at least $1,000, according to a survey of employers from the Kaiser Family Foundation. It's the continuation of a multiyear trend of companies passing more of the costs of employee health care back onto workers. (Kodjak, 9/14)
Kaiser Health News:
Studies: Employer Costs Slow As Consumers Use Less Care, Deductibles Soar
Employer health insurance expenses continued to rise by relatively low amounts this year, aided by moderate increases in total medical spending but also by workers taking a greater share of the costs, new research shows. Average premiums for employer-sponsored family coverage rose 3.4 percent for 2016, down from annual increases of nearly twice that much before 2011 and double digits in the early 2000s, according to a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation. (Kaiser Health News is an editorially independent program of the foundation.) (Hancock and Luthra, 9/14)