Boston Area Employers to Soon Pay Over $10,000 For Health Insurance
Mercer has reported that the average cost of providing health insurance to Boston area employees is soon to top $10,000. The cost was arrived at after averaging single employee and family plan health insurance. Mercer is a consulting firm that specializes in health plans. In spite of efforts by employers, hospitals and insurance companies to control health insurance costs, they are rising faster than the inflation rate.
Though the coverage of health insurance is good in Massachusetts, cost control has not been so successful. In firms with more than 500 employees health care costs have increased slower than the national average. Average increases for health care plans have been about 10 percent. This is likely to be sustained in 2008.
The lower increase in the large Massachusetts business health care costs could mean that employers are now relying on contributions and other cost shifting methods.
Other findings of the survey include a steady erosion in the US healthcare system which relies on employers to provide health insurance. Five years ago 66 percent of companies with fewer than 200 employees offered health coverage. This year that figure is down to only 61 percent.
