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Employee Health Costs Rose 6.1 Percent

Posted on: Tuesday, 22 November 2005, 00:00 CST

By Dave Simanoff, Tampa Tribune, Fla.

Nov. 22--TAMPA -- A national survey of employer-sponsored health care plans confirms what your gut -- and your wallet -- have known all year: Health care got more expensive for workers in 2005.

Mercer Health & Benefits LLC, the human resources consulting firm that conducted the survey, said annual health care costs rose to an average of $7,089 for American employees, up 6.1 percent from the previous year.

The figure includes the amount employers contributed to medical and dental plans for employees and their covered family members, plus the amount employees paid in health care premiums. It does not include employees' out-of-pocket expenses, such as co-payments for doctor visits and prescription drugs.

Although there is little doubt that health care costs are getting bigger -- the average price for employer-sponsored plans has gone up every year since 1994 -- the sizes of those increases have shrunk in the past four years, from 14.7 percent in 2002 to 6.1 percent in 2005.

Experts at Mercer say companies have managed to slow down the growth in health care costs by shifting more of the burden to individual employees through deductibles and coinsurance.

Matthew Snook, a Tampa-based consultant for Mercer, said large employers raised out-of-pocket costs instead of raising premiums.

"This signals their preference for keeping the costs of the plan down for all employees by shifting cost to those who use it most," he said.

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Source: Tampa Tribune

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