More Workers Have High-Deductible Health Plans

Nov. 09--Employers in Ohio and across the country continue to shift more of the cost of health insurance onto their employees, but moderate premium increases have helped soften the bite out of workers' paychecks, according to a national employee benefits survey.

The average annual premiums this year for employer-sponsored health insurance are $6,025 for single coverage and $16,834 for family coverage, according to the annual Employer Health Benefits Survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation'sHealth Research & Educational Trust.

That represents an increase of 3 percent over 2013 averages for family premiums, and an increase of 2 percent for single coverage, according to the benefits survey of more than 2,000 large and small firms.

Just last year, family and single coverage premiums rose 4 percent and 5 percent, respectively. In 2010, the average cost of a family plan surged 9.5 percent and premiums for single coverage rose 7.5 percent, according to previous Kaiser surveys.

The United States is "continuing to see striking moderation in premium increases by historical standards," according to Drew Altman, Kaiser's president and CEO.

But while premium increases have been held in check, workers, on average, are paying more out of pocket to use their health plans.

Today, 80 percent of medically insured workers have a general annual deductible for single coverage that must be met before most services are reimbursed by the plan, up from 63 percent five years ago, according to Kaiser.

The average annual deductible this year is $1,217 -- essentially unchanged from last year -- but up a whopping 47 percent from $826 dollars in 2009, Kaiser reports.

Even workers without a general annual deductible often face other types of cost sharing when they use services, such as copayments or coinsurance for office visits and hospitalizations.

Experts say full implementation of the Affordable Care Act will continue to drive the trend toward high-deductibles in employer-sponsored health plans, which cover just over 60 percent of Ohio workers -- about the same as the national average.

Because of the health reform law, many companies have already been forced to offer richer benefits to comply with the law's requirement that 10 "essential health benefits" be included in all of their health plans, regardless of the cost of those benefits.

Next year, the law's employer mandate will require every businesses with 50 or more full-time workers to offer health insurance or pay a tax penalty.

"What other choice do they have?" asks Lee Nathans, president of the Ohio Association of Health Underwriters in Ohio. "They (employers) are in a difficult position...and their traditional way of handling increased insurance costs is to increase deductibles to lower overall premium costs."

Inflated insurance costs will likely lead many small employers who do not meet the 50-worker threshold to drop insurance coverage altogether, Nathans said.

"Larger companies with 50 and over (full time workers) have to deal with whatever the pricing and cost increases are for group plans," he said. "But some of the smaller companies are going to seriously consider allowing employees to get coverage on their own through the exchanges."

Nathans was referring to the health insurance marketplaces created by the Affordable Care Act, which over private health coverage for individuals and families with annual incomes up to $46,680 for an individual and $95,400 for a family of four.

This year, more than 1540,000 Ohioans gained coverage through the marketplace, and more than 400,000 newly eligible Ohioans signed up for Medicaid coverage under the law.

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