Health insurance costs soar 12% in '08

By Roger Fillion, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Employers' health insurance costs this year have climbed 12 percent above 2007 levels in Colorado and Wyoming, a survey shows.

The premiums employers pay for their employees' health insurance have risen less rapidly, at an average rate of 7 percent, according to the Mountain States Employers Council.

The group's survey of 697 employers in the two states suggests that employers continue to face double-digit gains in health care costs but are managing to shift a sizeable chunk of the increase to their employees.

The council's survey also showed a continued increase in the number of employers that offer so-called consumer-directed plans such as health savings accounts. These plans offer workers lower premiums but higher deductibles.

According to the survey, 82 percent of employers had an increase in health care costs this year while 18 percent did not.

This year's overall increase in health insurance costs slightly exceeds the 11 percent jump posted last year.

"It confirms our concerns that the cost of health care is continuing to rise in the double-digit area," said Jim Hertel, publisher of Colorado Managed Care Newsletter, an industry publication.

Hertel said the increasing use of medical technology, such as imaging and implants, as well as higher health care charges, are driving up overall costs.

He also noted that employers are "continuing to shift significant portions of the increase back to employees in the form of higher deductibles and co-pays."

This year's 7 percent premium increase matches the 2007 rise.

According to the survey, 51 percent of employers offer or are considering offering consumer-directed plans such as health savings accounts or health reimbursement accounts.

In particular, the number of Colorado and Wyoming employers offering HSAs as an option in their employee benefit plans totaled 18 percent in 2008. That's up from 15 percent in 2007 and 7 percent in 2006.

Both the employer and the employee fund the HSA, and workers can take their HSA plans with them if they leave the company.

By contrast, an HRA is completely employer-funded, and employees can't take it with them if they leave.

The survey showed that 8 percent of employers offered HRAs in 2008, up from 6 percent in 2007 and 4 percent in 2006.

fillionr@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2467

• May 19, 2008

  8:20 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  BrianSchwartz writes:

  The Rocky Mountain News reported that "Employers’ health insurance costs this year have climbed 12 percent above 2007 levels in Colorado and Wyoming." The article paraphrases Jim Hertel, publisher of Colorado Managed Care Newsletter : "the increasing use of medical technology, such as imaging and implants … are driving up overall costs."

  Not so, says MIT economist Amy Finkelstein. Here’s an excerpt from an article in Business Week:

  "the real culprit for the rapidly rising cost of health care is the massive expansion of medical insurance over the past 40 years. Sure, new technologies play a role, but doctors, hospitals, and consumers adopt them so freely largely because insurance foots the bill. ...

  "Why is insurance so important? One obvious reason, Finkelstein believes, is that consumers opt for more care if someone else pays for it. But the more significant effect may be that insurance guarantees a steady source of revenue for hospitals and other health providers. Such ready cash encourages them to build new cardiac-care centers and stock up on the latest high-tech equipment, knowing it will be paid for."

  For more see:
  http://www.patientpowernow.org/2008/0...

• June 7, 2008

  11:10 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  chuckgo writes:

  How much is paid in and how much is paid out?

  Add it all up Surplus or shortage?
  Who is profiting under the current system?
  What is the actual cost of providing health care, minus profit?
  Should all health care be Non-Profit?
  Is it ethical to profit from someone’s pain and suffering?

  Following is not anticipated to be all-inclusive.

  Total paid into Health Care by American public. (Employee, employer and unemployed)
  For example;
  Medicare Medicaid Taxes
  Social Security (Assuming old age is long-term disability)
  All forms of health or disability insurance: (dental, health, eye, supplemental, etc)
  Premiums
  Co-Pays
  Deductibles
  Non-covered expenses
  VA Co-Pays
  Medicare, Medicaid Co-Pays
  Cost to for unpaid bills, fees, penalties, and interest on credit accounts.

  Minus

  Total paid out by
  Insurance companies
  Medicare, Medicaid
  VA
  Military
  Charity healthcare
  Social Security.

  Surplus or shortage???

  Quoting
  http://www.nchc.org/facts/cost.shtml

  The annual premium for an employer health plan covering a family of four averaged nearly $12,100. The annual premium for single coverage averaged over $4,400.