Employees Pay Nearly $5K in Annual Premiums for Family Coverage

Employees this year will contribute an average $4823 each toward health insurance premiums for family coverage, according to a Visualizing Health Policy infographic produced by the Kaiser Family Foundation and published in Journal of the American Medical Association.

Meanwhile, their employers will pay an average of $12,011 in premiums per employee for family coverage, bringing the average 2014 annual premiums for family coverage to $16,834.

According to the Recent Trends in Employer-Sponsored Insurance infographic, employee premiums for family coverage increased 26% between 2009 and 2014. Comparatively, inflation and earnings rose just 11% over the same period.

In 2014, higher-paying firms shelled out more in family-coverage premiums for their employees than did lower-paying firms. At higher-wage firms, employers contributed an average of $13,084 per worker for family coverage compared to the average $7706 at lower-wage firms. Employees at lower-wage firms, on average, paid $6472 each toward family coverage; at an average of $4497, employees at higher-wage firms paid almost $2000 less in premium contributions for family coverage.

The infographic also showed:

• The average annual premium for single coverage in 2014 is $6025, compared to just $3695 a decade ago.
• Average deductibles among workers enrolled in single coverage plans with a deductable more than doubled from $584 in 2006 to $1217 in 2014.
• Just 55% of workers received health insurance coverage through their employer in 2014, down from 63% in 2000.—Jolynn Tumolo

Reference

Kaiser Family Foundation. Recent trends in employer-sponsored insurance. JAMA. 2014; 312:1849.