Employer Health Costs Slow as U.S. Economy Reins in Spending
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Growth in the health insurance premiums charged by companies including UnitedHealth Group Inc. and WellPoint Inc. has slowed to 4.5 percent this year, less than half of 2011’s rate, the Kaiser Family Foundation said.
The average cost for a family plan obtained through an employer jumped this year to $15,745 from $15,073 in 2011, when premiums rose 9.5 percent, the Menlo Park, California-based research group said today after surveying more than 2,000 companies. Premiums, a cost typically shared by employers and employees, have doubled in the past decade, three times the gains in wages and inflation, according to Kaiser.