Over 80 percent of organizations nationwide experienced a premium increase, and 49.1 percent responded by raising the employee portion of the premium. Sharing these rising costs with employees has been a growing trend over the past few years, experts predict it will continue in 2004. Additional statistics and trends are included in the press release below.
KANSAS CITY (February 19, 2004) - Rapidly rising healthcare costs are forcing employers across the country to pay double-digit premium increases, and in turn, employers are scaling back benefits and passing a larger share of the rising costs to employees. This is according to Compdata Surveys latest annual survey of employers compensation practices, the largest of its kind in the nation with data from nearly 5,000 organizations with more than 4.7 million incumbent workers.
As employers struggle to deal with double-digit premium increases, they are looking to employees to shoulder more of the burden. The national trend started several years ago and is becoming more prevalent. In 2001, 26.3% of organizations nationwide asked their workers to pay more of the costs of health insurance, the survey showed. This number increased in 2002 to 41%, and it went up even further to 49.1% in 2003. Experts are predicting the increases will continue in 2004.
"Organizations are preparing measures to reduce the impact of these costs," said Suzanne Adams, Manager of Survey Operations for Compdata Surveys. "However, the overall costs are going up dramatically, and employers will be forced to share some of these expenses with employees."
Nationwide, over 80.3% of all organizations experienced a healthcare premium increase with the average increase equaling 16%. In addition to increasing the employee portion of the premium, companies attempted to reduce healthcare costs by increasing deductible levels. The number of companies who did this has also steadily increased each year from 14.9% in 2001 to 33.4% in 2003. Additionally, 10.7% reduced benefits altogether.
About Compdata Surveys
Compdata Surveys is the nations leading compensation and benefits survey data provider. Annually, data is collected from thousands of organizations across 37 states and is published in state-specific publications. Compensation Data surveys include complete sections on benefits and pay practices along with pay information on 500 positions, entry level to top executives. Compdata Surveys provides accurate, reliable data at affordable prices. Compdata Surveys will collect data in March, April and May for the 2004 survey, and results will be available in the summer.
For further information about our compensation surveys, or to sign up as a participant in the 2004 survey, contact Amy Kaminski at (800) 300-9570.
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