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Akron Beacon Journal...
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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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