Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on October 3, 2018
new York
CNN Business
—
Employers and workers together spent nearly $20,000 on family health insurance coverage in 2018, according to a new report from the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Although premiums have increased fairly modestly in recent years, the growth has far outpaced increases in workers’ wages over time. The average family premium has increased 55 percent since 2008, twice as fast as workers’ wages and three times faster than inflation, according to Kaiser’s survey of employer benefits.
Businesses foot the bulk of the bill, paying an average of $14,100 a year. Yet workers are paying an average of $5,550, 65 percent more than a decade ago.
For individual coverage, total premiums averaged $6,900, up 47 percent from 2008. Workers contribute about $1,200 a year.
Deductibles also continue to weigh more heavily on workers’ pockets. The average deductible now stands at $1,350, a 212 percent increase since 2008. That’s eight times faster than wage growth.
Additionally, more workers are subject to deductibles – about 85% in 2018, up from 59% a decade ago. A quarter of all workers are subject to deductibles of at least $2,000, up from 15% five years ago.
Employers have tried to limit premium increases by raising deductibles. But high deductibles are one of the biggest complaints Americans have about their health coverage.
“As long as out-of-pocket costs for deductibles, drugs, surprise bills and more continue to outpace wage growth, people will be frustrated by their medical bills and see health care costs as huge pocketbook and policy issues,” said Drew Altman, Kaiser’s president.
While employers have been trying for years to control health care costs, the issue is once again coming to the forefront.
Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase announced earlier this year that they were joining forces to offer their combined 840,000 employees better health care choices and reduce costs for both their workers and their companies.
A growing number of companies are also contracting directly with hospitals and health care providers to care for their employees, according to a study by the National Business Group on Health released in August. General Motors and Detroit’s Henry Ford Health System recently established such a contract. The six-hospital system will provide access to more than 3,000 primary care physicians and specialists, as well as hospital, emergency room and pharmacy services, for nearly 24,000 GM employees and their families.
Some employers are looking to limit their networks to certain quality suppliers, which allows them to reduce costs. According to a study released earlier this year by consulting firm PwC, about 11% of companies said they have implemented these performance-based networks, up from 3% in 2014. Another 34% of companies said they were considering implementing these networks.
More large companies are offering coverage for telemedicine consultations with providers, such as videoconferencing or remote monitoring. That share has climbed to 74% this year, up from 27% in 2015, according to the Kaiser study.
Employees, however, have yet to embrace the new technology. Only 0.51% of employees with a large insurance plan had at least one telemedicine consultation in 2016, according to the latest available data.
“Many companies are paying for telemedicine, but very few employees are using it,” said Matthew Rae, senior health policy analyst at Kaiser.