Trends in employer health care coverage, 2008–2018: higher costs for workers and their families

Trends in employer health care coverage, 2008–2018: higher costs for workers and their families

Collection:
Health Policy and Services Research
Series Title(s):
Data brief (Commonwealth Fund)
Author(s):
Collins, Sara R., author
Radley, David C., author
Baumgartner, Jesse C., author
Contributor(s):
Commonwealth Fund, issuing body.
Publication:
[New York, N.Y.] : The Commonwealth Fund, November 2019
Language(s):
English
Format:
Text
Subject(s):
Financing, Personal -- economics
Financing, Personal -- trends
Health Benefit Plans, Employee -- economics
Health Benefit Plans, Employee -- trends
United States
Genre(s):
Technical Report
Abstract:
ISSUE. With 2020 elections coming up, some Democratic presidential candidates and members of Congress have suggested ways to reduce costs of insurance and care, including proposals for employer plans, which cover roughly half the population of the United States. GOAL. Examine trends in employer coverage over the past decade to determine how much workers are spending on premiums and deductibles and compare costs to median household income in each state. METHODS. Data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey--Insurance Component (MEPS--IC), which surveyed more than 40,000 private-sector employers in 2018 on their health insurance plans. KEY FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS. Average annual growth in the combined cost of employees' contributions to premiums and deductibles outpaced growth in U.S. median income between 2008 and 2018 in every state. Middle-income workers spent an average 6.8 percent of income on employer premium contributions in 2018; per-person deductibles across single and family plans amounted to 4.7 percent of median income. Recent proposals would enhance the affordability and cost protection of Affordable Care Act marketplace plans, allow people with employer plans to buy coverage on the marketplaces, or replace private insurance with a public plan like Medicare.
Copyright:
Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY license. (More information)
Extent:
1 online resource (1 PDF file (21 pages))
Illustrations:
Illustrations
NLM Unique ID:
101758878 (See catalog record)
Permanent Link:
http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101758878