Kaiser Survey: Employees Paying More for Coverage

The Kaiser Foundation just released its annual survey of employer health insurance costs and how these costs were shared. The major finding was that while the cost of coverage went up 3 percent, employee contributions towards their coverage increased 14 percent.

http://www.kff.org/insurance/090210nr.cfm

Since 2005, workers’ contributions to premiums have gone up 47 percent, while overall premiums rose 27 percent, wages increased 18 percent, and inflation rose 12 percent.

And while most employees have PPO coverage (58%), it is interesting to note that HDHPs coverage increased from 8% to 13% between 2008 and 2010.

In short, employees continue to pay a greater and greater share of their coverage at a rate that far outstrips their wage increases.