Employer family health coverage: $12,298

The cost of insuring a family of four with a U.S. employer-sponsored health plan averaged $12,298 in 2008, government officials said.

A report by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, showed that the annual premium for covering an employee and one family member, known as an employee-plus-one plan, averaged $8,535, while the annual premium for a plan that only covered the employee averaged $4,386.

Almost 20 million of the 62.5 million workers enrolled in employer-based insurance in 2008 had family plans, while about 11 million had employee-plus-one plans, the report said. The remaining 31.5 million workers had single-coverage plans, the AHRQ’s 2008 private-industry report also showed that:

– Nationally, workers enrolled in family plans last year contributed an average of $3,394 toward the cost of their premiums, compared with $2,303 for an employee-plus-one policy and $882 for a single-coverage plan.

– Across all states, workers in Florida contributed the most for a family plan at $4,412, while Indiana workers contributed the least $2,472; for employee-plus one plans New Hampshire workers contributed the most and Idaho workers the least, $3,005 and $1,736 respectively. For single coverage, New Hampshire workers contributed the most at $1,264 and workers in Hawaii contributed the least at $451.