Health insurance premiums have spiked to $24K

investmentnews.com:

Health insurance premiums jumped this year amid a post-pandemic spike in costs of care, adding to the burden on employers and workers as inflation erodes broader buying power.

The average employer-sponsored health insurance premium for U.S. families rose 7% to almost $24,000 this year, according to an annual KFF survey of more than 2,000 US companies, compared with a 1% increase last year. Premiums for individual employer coverage rose at the same rate.

Premiums for the estimated 153 million people in the U.S. who get coverage through their employers go up each year, but the acceleration in 2023 is particularly threatening to employers amid rising prices for other goods and services. The cost of premiums is typically shared between employers and workers, with companies paying 71% on average for family coverage in KFF’s survey.

“There’s no way to cut it other than to say that’s a huge number,” said Matthew Rae, associate director of KFF’s Health Care Marketplace Program and a co-author of the report. “To a family of four, you’re basically spending pretty close to what a new car costs, just for the year, to keep everybody covered.”

The 7% increase was the biggest the survey reported since 2011, though Rae cautioned that it’s not statistically higher than some years, given the survey’s margin of error. High inflation throughout 2022 drove this year’s hike, he said. 

“Clearly inflation is being passed on to premiums,” through elements like higher wages for health-care workers, Rae said.

Even as companies grappled with new costs for Covid testing, treatment and vaccines during the pandemic, employers’ health-care spending moderated as some people put off surgeries or other medical care. Some companies have increased