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August 23, 2016 at 01:50 PM
The research team at United Benefit Advisors has tried to build potential survey users’ appetite for its full 2016 health plan survey report by giving the public an early taste of the numbers.
The team has come out with information about health coverage premiums, the average worker’s share of the premiums, and typical deductibles for 19,557 employer plans that cover a total of about 5 million people.
Related: Why more workers blew off employer health coverage
The participating plans cover an average of about 250 people each.
But UBA, an Indianapolis-based group that provides support services for about 2,000 independent benefits brokers and consultants, says its sample includes many more of the kinds of small and midsize employers that an insurance agent or broker might actually serve, because it recruits the survey participants through its members.
Related: Small employers are dropping health plans, EBRI says
For glimpses at some of what UBA found about the participating employers’ 2016 health benefits packages, read on.
Group health premiums have been about as flat as a highway in Kansas. (Photo: Allison Bell/LHP)
1. Total monthly premiums held steady.
The monthly premium for participants’ employee-only coverage is $509 this year. That’s the same as it was in 2015.
Related: What 3 regulators told Congress about 2016 health rates
Workers in the participating plans pay about one-third of their health coverage premiums. (Image: Thinkstock)
2. The workers’ share of the premiums increased a little more than the employer’s share, but deductibles got a lot bigger.
For workers, the average monthly contribution for single coverage increased just 2.6 percent this year, to $144, and the average monthly contribution for family coverage increased only 2.2 percent, to $552.
Employers covered an average of 65 percent of the premiums for all employees, with an average of 71 percent of the total for single coverage and 54 percent of the total for family coverage. The overall average share was down just a little bit, from 66 percent, in 2015.
