Employer Health Insurance Costs in the United States

Key findings include:

• While wages and salaries increased by 39 percent between 1996 and 2005, health insurance costs to employers rose 97 percent.

• At offering businesses, the share of total compensation paid as health insurance rose from 6 to 8 percent from 1996 to 2005. As health insurance costs increased, the share of compensation paid as wages fell.

• Of those businesses that offered insurance, costs relative to payroll increased 34 percent between 1996 and 2005.

• Premium contributions as a share of payroll were highest for unionized businesses, businesses with a high share of full-time workers, and low-wage businesses.

• Although the increase in health insurance costs was similar across businesses, increases were highest for low-wage businesses. This may be due in part to the fact that compensation for high-wage businesses has increased substantially, while for low-wage businesses it has been stagnant.

Source: California Healthcare Foundation

This entry was posted on Monday, July 23rd, 2007 at 3:56 pm and is filed under Business and economics, Health insurance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.