Paying the price : how health insurance premiums are eating up middle-class incomes : state health insurance premium trends and the potential of national reform Data brief (Commonwealth Fund) Schoen, Cathy, author. Nicholson, Jennifer L., author. Rustgi, Sheila D., author. Health Benefit Plans, Employee -- economics Health Benefit Plans, Employee -- trends Health Care Reform -- economics The rapid rise in health insurance premiums has severely strained U.S. families and employers in recent years. This analysis of federal data finds that if premiums for employer-sponsored insurance grow in each state at the projected national rate of increase, then the average premium for family coverage would rise from $12,298 (the 2008 average) to $23,842 by 2020--a 94 percent increase. However, if health system reforms were able to slow premium growth by 1 percentage point in all states, by 2020 employers and families together would save $2,571 per premium for family coverage, compared with projected trends. If growth could be slowed by 1.5 percentage points--a target recently agreed to by a major industry coalition--yearly savings would equal $3,759. The analysis presents state-by-state data on premium costs for 2003 and 2008, as well as projections, using various assumptions, for costs in 2015 and 2020. [New York, N.Y.] : Commonwealth Fund, August 2009 Commonwealth Fund, issuing body. Technical Report Text Illustrations 1 online resource (1 PDF file (23 pages)) nlm:nlmuid-101547417-pdf 101547417 http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101547417 English United States Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0