Premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance rose to $13,375 for family coverage this year.
Employees paid, on average, $3,515 and employers paid $9,860, according to the benchmark 2009 Employer Health Benefits Survey released by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Educational Trust (HRET).
"When healthcare costs continue to rise so much faster than overall inflation in a bad recession, workers and employers really feel the pain. That’s why we are having a health reform debate," said Kaiser President and CEO Drew Altman.
According to the survey, family premiums rose about 5 percent – while general inflation fell 0.7 percent during the same period, mostly due to falling energy prices. Workers' wages rose 3.1 percent during the same period.
Since 1999, premiums have risen 131 percent, far more rapidly than workers’ wages, up 38 percent since 1999, or inflation, up 28 percent since 1999. For the past few years, the annual rincrease in premiums has been more moderate than the double-digit growth experienced earlier this decade.
The survey found that 60 percent of firms offer health benefits to their workers. As in the past, the smaller the firm, the less likely it is to offer health benefits – with 46 percent of the smallest employers (three to nine workers) offering health benefits.
Among those firms offering benefits, 21 percent report they reduced the scope of health benefits or increased cost sharing due to the economic downturn, and 15 percent report they increased the worker’s share of the premium.
The survey reveals that a growing number of workers who are covered by their employer are facing high deductibles in addition to contributing to the premiums for their coverage. In 2009, 22 percent of covered workers pay at least $1,000 out of pocket annually for single coverage before their plan generally will start to pay a share of their healthcare bills, up from 18 percent in 2008 and 10 percent in 2006.
That increase stems from changes at large employers (200 or more workers), though workers at smaller firms remain significantly more likely to face high deductibles. Among covered workers at large firms, 13 percent now face deductibles at or above $1,000; at small firms (three to 199 workers), 40 percent face deductibles at or above $1,000 – including 16 percent with deductibles at or greater than $2,000.
"As in the past, we’re seeing many businesses struggling with ways to curb their healthcare costs, including offering high-deductible plans for workers, though relatively few expect to drop health benefits altogether," said Kaiser Vice President Gary Claxton, lead author of the study and director of the foundation’s marketplace research.
Preferred Provider Organizations continue to dominate the employer market, enrolling six in 10 covered workers. Health Maintenance Organizations cover 20 percent of workers, with an additional 10 percent in point-of-service plans and 8 percent in consumer-directed plans, which are high-deductible plans that include a tax-preferred savings options such as a Health Savings Account (HSA) or Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA).
“(The) survey results demonstrate the need for comprehensive, meaningful reform," said Maulik S. Joshi, president of HRET and senior vice president for research at the American Hospital Association. "Our nation faces a unique opportunity to achieve reform and build a better healthcare system that improves care for patients and provides coverage for all at an affordable cost."
The full report and summary of findings from the annual survey of small and large employers is available online. Selected findings will also be published as a Web exclusive in Health Affairs.
The survey was conducted from January to May of 2009 and included 3,188 randomly selected, non-federal public and private firms with three or more employees (2,054 of which responded to the full survey and 1,134 of which responded to a single question about offering coverage).