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Dayton
Business Journal...
Report:
Employers health costs rise at
faster pace
by Joe Cogliano, DBJ Senior Reporter
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Health
care costs in Southwest Ohio
continue to climb, and at a faster pace than in previous years,
according to a
new survey.
On
Wednesday, Employers Resource
Association announced the results of its 2011 Health and Welfare
Benefits
Survey.
More
than 75 percent of the employers
surveyed in this corner of the state experienced an increase in their
healthcare costs, including 22 percent of respondents who saw an
increase of
more than 12 percent, a higher rate than in previous years. Also,
deductibles
rose, on average, by 18 percent from 2010 to 2011 across all health
plans.
ERA
conducted the survey during April
and May. It contains data from more than 200 association member
companies,
ranging in size from fewer than 50 employees to more than 1,000, who
provided
data on more than 245 health plans.
“With
the political uncertainty
surrounding health care reform and the Patient Protection and
Affordable Care
Act legislation, companies are reluctant to make major changes in their
policies, despite dramatic increases in costs,” said Doug Matthews,
survey
manager for ERA, in a statement.
The
health plans included in the
survey data represent a full spectrum of industries, including
manufacturing
(31 percent), nonprofit (14 percent), service/financial (14 percent),
wholesale/distribution/retail (12 percent), health (5 percent),
construction (5
percent) and other (17 percent).
The
survey found that deductibles are
continuing to rise across all traditional medical plans. Compared to
the 2010
Survey, deductibles rose 21 percent for single coverage ($1,011), 21.5
percent
for employee plus 1 coverage ($2,184), 13 percent for employee and
children
($2,308) and 17.1 percent for family coverage ($2,395).
Health
care costs will continue to be
a pressing issue for businesses, especially as the federal health care
reform
law begins to take hold. A new ballot measure is lined up for November
in Ohio
to seek to reverse some parts of the health care reform law.
Many
large companies have a big stake
in health care’s future. UnitedHealthcare parent UnitedHealth Group
Inc. —
which has a regional headquarters in West Chester that serves both
Dayton and
Cincinnati — and Anthem parent WellPoint Inc. are among those that have
already
started implementing some aspects of the reform. Other health insurers
such as
CIGNA , Aetna and Humana also have customers in the Dayton area and
could be
impacted.
And
already, big corporations such as
Caterpillar Inc. , Boeing Co. and AK Steelhave said the new law will
cost them
millions, and in some cases billions, and many already have taken
charge-offs
as a result.
Read
it with links at the Dayton
Business Journal
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