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- More than 65% of businesses with 10 or fewer employees say high cost is the most significant barrier to their offering health insurance, according to a survey released in June 2008 by the National Association for the Self-Employed. Only 19% of businesses with 10 or fewer employees currently offer coverage for full-time employees, down from 46% in 2005.
- Employer premiums for businesses that offered employees health insurance grew 34% between 1996 and 2005, exceeding 10% of total payroll in 2005, according to a report in the June 2008 edition of the US Bureau of Labor Statistics Monthly Labor Review.
- Some Americans are cutting back on medical care to save money during the economic downturn, according to an August report by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. About 22% reported making fewer doctor visits and 11% reported reducing their prescription drugs or dosages.
- More than 6 in 10 Americans with health insurance coverage (63 percent) report they experienced an increase in the costs they are responsible for paying under their plan in the past year, according to the latest annual survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute.
- Texas families saw their health insurance premiums soar 40 percent in five years – 10 times faster than their incomes increased, according to a study released in April 2008 by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
- A study released in June of 2006 by the consulting firm, Millimax, finds that the cost of medical services for the “typical American family of four” in 2006 will average $13,382, marking a 9.6% increase from 2005.
- Some 86% of Texas voters favor making health insurance more accessible and affordable – a concern they say is driven by the fear of losing their health benefits, according to a 2006 statewide public opinion survey sponsored by the Texas Hospital Association.
- A survey by benefits consultant Hewitt Associates finds that US companies will pay an estimated 12.6% more for their employees’ health insurance in 2006 than in 2005. In response to the cost increases, which “may climb at almost five times the US inflation rate,” 40% of employers anticipate shifting health care costs to workers by raising deductibles, premiums, or co-payments for hospital and specialist care.
- According to a 2003 study by Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust, employees pay for health insurance this year, 47 percent raised employees' payments for presecription drugs, 34 percent increased deductibles and 34 percent raised co-payments for doctor visits.
- A 2005 study commissioned by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation reported that 30.7 percent of adult Texans are uninsured and 26.6 percent of employed Texas adults are uninsured. Both statitics are the highest rates in the country.
- In 1999 only 53% of private sector establishments in Texas offered health insurance to their employees.
- A new National Survey of small businesses by the Kaiser Family Foundation finds that two-thirds (66%) of small employers say that they are dissatisfied with the cost of health care and health insurance, and about one-third (35%) of small businesses that now offer insurance say they are likely to increase the share of costs borne by employees in the next years. If costs continue to escalate, many small employers predict changes that would potentially disrupt coverage for workers.
- Double-digit premium increases combined with a slow job marked has lead many employers to scale back health benefits and shift more of the burden of health insurance premiums onto their workers. Nationally, firms offering health benefits have dropped from 68% in 2001 to 63% in 2004.
- In 1999, 53% of private sector establishments in Texas offered health insurance to their employees. In 2003, only 48% of private sector establishments in Texas offered health insurance to their employees.
- In response to a local survey, when asked to name the three health problems or issues that personally concern you and your family the most, the cost of health care and its impact on care access accounted for a third of the mentions.
- Of local survey respondents who reported being impacted by the changing healthcare market, approximately one out of four said the impact was great. Those impacted the most felt it in the pocket more than in a degradation of coverage.
- The rate of growth of health care premiums moderated somewhat in the last year, but continues to grow at double-digit rates. Between spring 2003 and spring of 2004, premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance rose by 11.2%, lower than the 13.9% increase in 2003, but still the fourth consecutive year of double-digit growth. Premiums continued to increase much faster than overall inflation (2.3%) and wage gains (2.2%). Since 2000, premiums for family coverage have increased by 59%, compared with inflation growth of 9.7% and wage growth of 12.3%.
- In its’ annual Employer Health Benefits survey, the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 41% of employers offering health benefits say that they are “very likely” or “somewhat likely” to increase the percentage of the family premium that employees must pay in the next two years.
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Rising health insurance costs are forcing businesses of all sizes to pass a growing portion of premiums, co-payments or deductibles on to their employees, according to a September 2005 poll of business leaders, nearly 80% of which said they fear their employees won’t be able to afford it. The poll of 600 business owners and benefit managers, released today by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, found that companies expect health insurance costs to jump an additional 12% over the next year, and that business owners will ask their employees to pay an average of 21% of this increase. Respondents’ employees currently pay, on average, 29% of their own health insurance premiums. More than one-third of businesses that projected an increase in costs said it’s likely their employees would drop coverage as a result of increases.
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