Premiums for health care coverage in the United States have increased 87 percent since 2000, according to a survey released Sept. 26 by the Kaiser Family Foundation and Health Research and Educational Trust.
The “2006 Employer Health Benefits Survey” also determined that health care premiums increased 7.7 percent in 2006, which is more than twice the rate of increase for workers’ wages (3.8 percent) and overall inflation (3.5 percent).
The survey found that 61 percent of firms offered health care coverage to their employees in 2006, down significantly from 69 percent in 2000 and 66 percent in 2003. The foundation primarily attributes the six-year drop to the declining number of small businesses offering health benefits. According to the survey, the number of small firms (199 employees or less) that offer health care coverage has decreased from 65 percent in 1999 to 60 percent in 2006, while the number of large firms (200 or more employees) that offer health care coverage has averaged more than 98 percent during the same period.
“A 7 or 8 percent increase in premium costs may not sound like a huge increase, but when you compound these annual increases over five or six years, the effect is staggering,” said Joe Rossmann, ABC vice president of fringe benefits. “The small business community is the nation’s largest employer. But every year, small businesses are forced to shoulder the burden of America’s spiking health care costs.”
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For more information, contact Joe Rossmann at ABC, rossmann@abc.org.