AARP Eye Center
Disturbing Trends in Kaiser Health Insurance Survey
By Elizabeth Nolan Brown, September 12, 2012 08:22 AM
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Low-wage workers tend to pay more for less-robust health insurance coverage, according to a new survey . For family health care plans, employees at lower-wage companies paid an average of $700 more per year, despite the typical policy for these workers being worth $1,000 less than average.
Overall, job-based health insurance premiums continued to rise in 2012, up 4 percent for family insurance plans and 3 percent for employee-only coverage.
"It's historically a very moderate increase in premiums," said Drew Altman, president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, which conducted the survey with the Health Research & Educational Trust.
But even a moderate increase feels really big to workers when their wages are flat or falling," said Altman. The rise in premiums easily outpaced workers' raises and inflation.
The average premium for family coverage is now $15,745. Overall, workers pay an average of $4,300, while employers pick up the rest of the tab. Workers at low-wage companies, however, pay an average premium of $4,977 for family coverage.
The average premium for employee-only health care plans is $5,615, with the employee covering about $950.
In the past three years, premiums rose nearly $2,400 for job-based family coverage and nearly $800 for employee-only coverage. In 2011 alone, premiums rose an average of 9 percent.
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