Employer Premiums Rise Nearly 7% in 2017; Employees Absorb More of Health Insurance Cost
By a
On the other side, some states saw decreases in premiums, such as
Average employee premiums for all employer-sponsored plans rose from
"Premiums have been holding relatively steady the last few years. And while this year's increases are not astronomical, their departure from the trend does warrant attention. To mitigate these rising costs, employers are shifting more premium onto employees, offering more lower-cost consumer directed health plans (CDHPs) and health maintenance organization (HMO) plans, increasing out-of-network deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums, and leveraging continued extensions on the ability to "grandmother," says
Prescription Drug Plans-For a second year, prescription drug plans with four or more tiers are exceeding the number of plans with one to three tiers. Almost three-quarters (72.6%) of prescription drug plans have four or more tiers, while 27.4% have three or fewer tiers. Even more surprising is that the number of six-tier plans has surged, accounting for 32% of all plans, when only 2% of plans were using this design only a year ago.
"While employers chose to hold contributions, copays and in-network benefits steady, they dramatically shifted prescription drug costs to employees. By increasing tiering and adding coinsurance (vs. copays), employers were able to contain costs," says Weber.
Out-of-Pocket Costs-Median in-network deductibles for singles and families across all plans remain steady at
Self-Funding-The number of employers using self-funding grew 48% for employers with 25 to 49 employees in 2017 (5.8% of plans), and 13.4% for employers with 50 to 99 employees (9.3% of plans).
Overall, 12.8% of all plans are self-funded, up from 12.5% in 2016, while almost two-thirds (60.9%) of all large employer (1,000+ employees) plans are self-funded.
"Self-funding has always been an attractive option for large groups, but we see self-funding becoming increasingly desirable to all employers as a way to avoid various cost and compliance aspects of health care reform," says Weber. "For small employers with healthy populations, self-funding may be particularly attractive since fully insured community-rated plans under the ACA don't give them any credit for a healthy group."
The 2017
ABOUT THE 2017 UBA HEALTH PLAN SURVEY
The 2017
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