Health Insurance and You!

Image Credit: Kaiser Family Foundation

     Employer-sponsored health insurance covers about 157 million Americans, making it the largest source of health coverage in the country. Recent findings in a study conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation, state that employees’ share of premium costs have increased by 47% in the last five years alone. Overall, the average annual family premium for covered workers in small firms increased 103%, in the last decade. Furthermore, 30% of employers sampled reported that they “reduced the scope of benefits or increased cost sharing because of the recession.” In this blog on CNN Money, economist Deborah Chollet describes the situation these companies are in: “employers are struggling to keep their head above water. They’re cutting costs just to maintain employment. One way to do that is to make workers pay more.” Clearly, employees aren’t catching a break anytime soon—so what impact will health care reform have on this? Chollet hopes that, “with reform, there’s an increase in the number of insured people and this will help drive down the big [cost] increase. The KFF study points out that reform will likely have little tangible effect on the premiums that employers and employees pay, in the short-term. However, we can expect imminent improvements in coverage (i.e. limiting annual/lifetime caps on coverage and extending young adults’ coverage under a parent’s policy till age 26) thanks to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Reform holds the promise of long-term savings for both employees and employers, though these changes will be protracted following implementation in 2014.