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Akron
Beacon Journal...
Premium
expense
October 2, 2011
Most
workers who receive health
coverage through their employers probably could have predicted
accurately the
key findings of an annual national survey of employer health benefits:
Their
wages have not risen nearly as fast as their costs for medical care and
insurance.
The
Kaiser Family Foundation and
Health Research & Educational Trust reported last week that
premiums for
employer-sponsored coverage climbed 9 percent, a sharper increase than
in
recent years, adding to the financial challenges confronting employers
and
workers in a fragile economy. By contrast, wages grew 2 percent this
year.
The
average cost for a health
insurance policy has risen to $5,429 for an individual and $15,073 for
a
family. (In 2001, the costs were $2,689 and $7,061.) The share of
premiums paid
by employees has risen steadily, too, more steeply for family coverage.
In
another trend, the percentage of employers offering policies with high
deductibles ($1,000 or higher) and fewer benefits at lower premiums is
growing
rapidly.
The
Affordable Care Act includes major
expansions in health benefits, many of which take effect in 2014. Among
the
ones currently in force, adult children under age 26 can be covered
under a
parent’s employer-provided plan. Insurers also are required to cover
without
charge some preventive care services, for example, immunizations and
screenings. Critics are quick to attribute the spike in premiums to
such
mandates. Yet the survey points out that the two provisions combined
contributed a modest one to two percentage points to the premium
increase this
year.
A
more persuasive explanation may be
that the boost reflects an industry adjusting rates upward to catch up
with the
higher cost of medical services after a number of years of moderate
increases
in premium costs. Equally likely, insurers are positioning themselves
for a
tougher regulatory climate and have found an incentive to do so in
another
measure due to take effect in 2014. Insurers will be required to
justify to
state officials premium increases above 10 percent.
The
survey findings reinforce that
with many reforms still to be implemented, the nation has yet to
resolve the
crucial puzzle of how to control the upward spiral in health costs that
puts
employers and workers in a financial bind. In growing numbers,
employers are
dealing with the rising cost of benefits in ways that are shifting more
of the
costs to workers. Stagnating wages, less comprehensive benefits, high
deductibles
and high copayments all reduce the financial security of working
families.
Read
it at the Akron Beacon Journal
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