Oct. 18, 2023 – People who buy health insurance for their entire family through their employer are paying nearly $500 more annually in 2023, compared to what they paid in 2022. The employee contribution for single health insurance coverage increased $74 from 2022 to 2023.
The increases are on pace with the rates of inflation and wage growth, according to the health care think tank Kaiser Family Foundation. The findings come from KFF’s survey of 2,133 non-federal employers and were published Wednesday in the journal Health Affairs.
Nearly one in four employers said employee contributions will increase even more during the next 2 years.
Employees who get health insurance through their employer for their families will pay an average of $6,575 per year toward the coverage, while employers on average will contribute more than $17,000 annually for each family’s coverage. The average total cost for a family insurance plan is $23,968, according to the KFF survey results.
But the findings showed that workers at small firms (those with less than 200 employees) paid significantly more for family coverage. On average, employees at small companies paid $8,334 toward family plans, compared to $5,889 paid by employees at large companies.
Insurance premium costs have risen steadily in the past 5 years:
- The annual premium for single coverage has increased $1,539, from $6,896 in 2018 to $8,435 in 2023. The worker’s annual contribution in 2018 was $1,186, and that amount has increased by $215 to $1,401 in 2023.
- The annual premium for family coverage has increased $4,352, from $19,616 in 2018 to $23,968 in 2023. The worker’s annual contribution in 2018 was $5,547 in 2018, and that amount has increased by $1,028 to $6,575 in 2023.
KFF reported that deductible amounts are remaining relatively steady from 2022 to 2023, noting that employers may be sensitive to worker concerns about the being able to afford health care. For many plans, people will need to rack up at least $1,735 in health care costs this year before many parts of insurance coverage even begin to defray out-of-pocket costs.
As part of the survey, large employers were asked whether they believed their plans had enough access to mental health care, and 59% said there were enough providers in their plan’s network who could offer timely access to services.
“That means that a substantial share of employers continue to be unsatisfied with the availability of mental health providers,” the report authors wrote.