Human Resources

Employee Health Insurance Cost Rising Again

In the next few months, many employees will renew their benefits with their current company. This year, however may differ from previous years when it pertains to health care. In recent years, employers have offset the rising cost of health insurance with higher deductibles and higher costs for those who use the health care. A recent article in the USA Today, Sandra Block talks about companies sharing the pain by increasing employee premium contributions. Towers Watson, a human resource consultant, predicts that 66% of companies will increase employees’ share of premium single-only coverage in 2012, and 73% will increase the share of premiums for dependent coverage. This kind of increase will undoubtedly put a burden on already stressed employees and employers all over the country.

Over the last decade, insurance premiums have risen over 131% for consumers. There are multiple reasons as to why this number continues to rise at record levels. One reason would be that the baby boomer generation is getting older and depending on health care more so than in the past. The baby boomer generation also had kids that are now graduating college, but not able to find jobs and parents are now allowed to keep them on their policy until the age of 26. Technology has also had an impact on increasing prices of health care. There is more of a demand for prescription drugs and companies are paying record amounts of money investing in testing for new drugs. Another reason for continual rising health care cost is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare.

Obamacare is an unknown to many companies around the country. They are unsure how it will affect their costs, but many believe that health care will increase even more than the past decade. Insurance companies are unsure what their fate may be when competing for government health care. This unsure attitude has companies and employees...