Health Plan Deductibles Grew Seven Times Faster Than Wages

The Kaiser Family Foundation has just released its 2015 Employer Benefits Survey:

Single and family premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance rose an average of 4 percent this year, continuing a decade-long period of moderate growth, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation/Health Research & Educational Trust (HRET) 2015 Employer Health Benefits Survey released today
The average annual premium for single coverage is $6,251, of which workers on average pay $1,071. The average family premium is $17,545, with workers on average contributing $4,955.
Since 2010, both the share of workers with deductibles and the size of those deductibles have increased sharply. These two trends together result in a 67 percent increase in deductibles since 2010, much faster than the rise in single premiums (24%) and about seven times the rise in workers’ wages (10%) and general inflation (9%).
“With deductibles rising so much faster than premiums and wages, it’s no surprise that consumers have not felt the slowdown in health spending,” Foundation President and CEO Drew Altman said.

I would state that a little differently: It is consumers who are causing some of the slowdown, because they are increasingly sensitive to health spending. So, the movement to faster growing deductibles and slower growing premiums as a good thing. However, I have to qualify that remark: There is still too much price-fixing conducted between health insurers and providers, and not enough price formation by consumers and providers directly.

Read the entire entry at NCPA's Health Policy Blog.