WSJ: Employer Health-Care Costs Rise 9.2%

[question everything]

Employer Health-Care Costs Rise 9.2%

By VANESSA FUHRMANS
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
September 15, 2005; Page D2

Employers are facing a 9.2% increase in the cost of providing health care to employees this year, pushing the premium for an average family health plan above the annual salary for a minimum-wage worker, a nationwide survey shows.

The 2,995-employer survey, conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation and Health Research and Educational Trust, is considered an authoritative barometer of U.S. company health-care costs. It contains one glimmer of good news: After four years of double-digit increases in health-insurance premiums, the average increase has fallen below 10%.

But this year's jump is still three times bigger than the average increase in workers' income and nearly triple the inflation rate. Since 2000, employers' premiums have climbed 73%, bringing the average annual premium for family coverage to $10,880.

That makes a family premium more expensive than the $10,712 a full-time minimum-wage worker earns in a year. Given that the average worker pays 26% of those annual premiums, or $2,713, the cumulative rise in health-care costs have made it all but impossible for many low-income workers to afford company-sponsored coverage. Indeed, the share of workers covered by health insurance through their own employer fell to 60% in 2005, compared with 63% in 2000, the study's authors said.

(snip)

More businesses, mostly smaller ones, are dropping health benefits altogether. The percentage of firms offering health insurance to their workers dropped to 60%, down from the 66% in 2003 and 69% in 2000, the study said.

(snip)

Write to Vanessa Fuhrmans at [e-mail]

URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112671540902340591,00.html (subscription)

[rodeodance]

1. health care costs up, fuel up. where is the real OUTRAGE!!

[Erika]

2. Bush's redistribution of wealth

take from the individual and give to corporations. Our standard of living goes down as corporate profits rise. Unfortunately, his shallow followers says be thankful for a third of a glass, it could be worse. They won't rise up against him.

But the U.S. public is finally starting to feel the outrage.