The average annual cost of employer-sponsored health insurance for a family rose three percent this year to $16,834, the Kaiser Family Foundation reported in its 2014 survey of employer health benefits released Wednesday.
Of that, employees pay on average $4,823 a year towards the cost.
The increase is considered relatively modest compared to hikes in the past, and is only slightly higher than the rate of inflation and the average increase in wages.
Annual increases in employer health coverage ran into double digits in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Yearly premiums for worker-only coverage average $6,025 this year _ up about two percent from last year _ and employees contribute $1,081 toward the cost of that coverage.
“These findings are positive and reflect a general slowing in health care costs overall,” said Maulik Joshi, president of the Health Research & Educational Trust, the survey’s co-sponsor.
But Kaiser Family Foundation President and CEO Drew Altman noted that many workers are paying more when they get sick because their insurance deductibles “continue to rise and skin-in-the-game insurance gradually becomes the norm.”
Covered employees had an average deductible this year of $1,217. That’s 47 percent higher than the average deductible in 2009 when it was $826. Some 80 percent of workers with coverage have an annual deductible.
In addition, 18 percent of workers with a deductible have one of at least $2,000. Employees of small firms are more likely to face higher deductibles.
There was little change in other forms of cost sharing.
Kaiser said 149 million non-elderly people are covered by employer-sponsored insurance.
More than 2,000 small and large employers were surveyed.
About the Author
