Source: USA Today
Escalating grocery bills and car prices have cooled, but price relief for Americans does not extend to health care, a new survey shows.
The average cost for a family health insurance plan offered through an employer increased 7% this year to $25,572, according to the annual employer health benefits survey released Wednesday by KFF, a nonprofit health policy organization.
The cost of family health insurance jumped 7% for the second consecutive year after a decade of more modest yearly increases. Family insurance rates increased by just 1% in 2022.
Insurance costs for individuals bumped up 6% to $8,951 this year, according to the survey. A year ago, individual plans increased 7%.
These rising health insurance costs add up for companies that pay the bulk of the tab and for families, many of whom are struggling to afford rent and groceries. Health insurance costs rose at higher rates than the 4.5% increase in workers’ wages and the 3.2% jump in inflation, which cooled after spiking in 2021 and 2022.
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About 154 million working-age Americans and their families get health insurance through the workplace. KFF tracks trends in employer health insurance through an annual survey of 2,142 non-federal public and private employers nationwide.
Health insurance rates accelerating after a decade of more modest increases likely reflects the “growth of prices in the economy overall,” said Matthew Rae, associate director of KFF’s health care marketplace project. Rae said people also are accessing health care more frequently after skimping on doctor visits and routine medical screenings during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’ve rebounded to normal levels,” Rae said.
Medical inflation tends to lag behind overall inflation, which is one explanation for health insurance prices increasing as overall inflation slows, said Tim Nimmer, senior vice president of insurance services and operations at TriNet, which offers human resource services for small businesses.
