Recent trends in employer-sponsored health insurance premiums

JAMA via Michelle Long, MPH; Matthew Rae, MPH, MPA; Gary Claxton; Anne Jankiewicz; David Rousseau, MPH ; for the Kaiser Family Foundation

01/26/2016

This Visualizing Health Policy infographic charts recent trends in employer-sponsored health insurance premiums. Between 1999 and 2015, premiums increased by 203%, outpacing both inflation and workers’ earnings. However, growth of premiums for family coverage slowed toward the end of that time period, from an average of 11% per year between 1999 and 2005 to 5% per year between 2005 and 2015. Between 2014 and 2015, the average premium for single and family coverage increased 4%, and over the past 5 years, deductibles increased faster than both premiums and wages. There is considerable variation in the premiums offered by different employers; 8% of covered workers are enrolled in a family plan worth more than $24 000, and 4% are in plans worth less than $10 000 annually. More than half of large employers conducted an analysis to determine whether they offered insurance plans that would be subject to the excise tax on high-cost employer-sponsored health coverage slated to take effect in 2018.

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