Premiums For Employer-Sponsored Family Health Coverage Rise Slowly For Sixth Straight Year

In 2017, some 151 million Americans rely on employer-sponsored coverage. According to the nineteenth annual Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF)/Health Research & Educational Trust (HRET) 2017 Employer Health Benefits Survey, annual family premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance rose an average of 3 percent to $18,764 this year, continuing a six-year run of relatively modest increases. Health Affairs is releasing a Web First with selected findings from the report. The Web First is authored by Gary Claxton, a KFF vice president and director of the Health Care Marketplace Project; Matthew Rae, Michelle Long, and Anthony Damico of KFF; Heidi Whitmore of NORC at the University of Chicago; and Gregory Foster of HRET. It will also appear in the October issue of Health Affairs, to be released on October 2. According to the authors, workers’ average contribution to family premiums in 2017 has increased more rapidly than the employer’s share since 2012 (32 percent versus 14 percent). Workers on average now contribute $5,714 annually toward their family premiums, and those at firms with fewer than 200 workers contribute more—$6,814 on average. The survey highlights big differences in what covered workers at large and small firms pay for their health care. While there are far more small employers (3.1 million with 3–199 workers) than large ones (53,400 with at least 200 workers), more covered workers are at large firms (71 percent) than small ones (29 percent). Those cove...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - Category: Health Management Authors: Tags: Costs and Spending Elsewhere@ Health Affairs Insurance and Coverage Employer Health Benefits Survey Web First Source Type: blogs