The price of an average group health plan is projected to reach $9,821 per employee next year, according to an analysis released by Hewitt Associates, Inc. Those costs include employer and employee premium contributions, but not employee out-of-pocket expenses like copayments. The findings are based on information from 325 large employers.
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Get Your Report Now!The 8.8 percent cost hike compares with a 6.9 percent increase this year and 6 percent increases in 2008 and 2007. “The spike in costs is driven in large part by the economy,” said Hewitt’s Jim Winkler. With the ongoing weak economy, employers have drastically reduced hiring. The result is an aging workforce with more medical concerns than younger hires.
Winkler believes new healthcare reform provisions, like elimination of lifetime dollar caps and expanding coverage to adult children, are also contributing factors.
See what other organizations are doing. BLR recently conducted a survey on healthcare insurance trends. See how other organizations are trying to adjust to the rising costs of healthcare insurance by reading the summary of BLR’s 2010 Healthcare Insurance Practices Survey.
The article overview, More Companies Kept Healthcare Costs Down in 2009, is also available on Compensation.BLR.com.
This article previously appeared on Safety.BLR.com.