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Trends in Health Insurance Costs
Source: www.bls.gov
Topic: Health Insurance
Sort Desciption: employers did to control their health insurance costs. ... Percent changes in benefit costs and health insurance costs, private industry workers,. 1980-98 ...
Content Inside: 24 Compensation and Working Conditions Spring 1999 Trends in Health Insurance Costs Employment Cost Index Over the past 20 years, employer health insur- ance costs have increased at widely varying rates. During some periods, such as 1987-95, they increased far more rapidly than wages and salaries or other benefits. At other times, such as 1996-97, they barely increased at all. This article examines these fluctuations, attempts to explain them, and looks at how they have affected overall employer costs for labor. ALBERT E. SCHWENK Albert E. Schwenk is an economist in the Division of Compensation Data Analysis and Planning, Bureau of Labor Statistics. Telephone: (202) 606-6203 E-mail: Schwenk_A@bls.gov Health insurance is one of the most costly benefits provided by some employers. In March 1998, for example, health insurance cost employers in private industry an average of $1 per hour that employees were at work, 5.4 percent of total compensation costs. 1 From 1980 to 1983, health insurance costs in private industry as measured by the Employment Cost Index (ECI) accelerated steadily, reaching an annual increase of 23.5 percent in the 12 months ended March 1983. (See chart 1.) From that point, the rate of increase declined, to 3.5 per- cent in the 12 months ended June 1986. It again acceler- ated to 14.7 percent in the year ended December 1988, but then slowed, to -0.3 percent in the year ended March 1996. For the 12 months ended September 1998, the rate of in- crease was 2.2 percent. Fluctuations in the rate of increase in health insurance costs reflect a number of factors, the most important being changes in the cost of medical care and cost containment efforts by employers. The impact of the former can be gauged by reviewing fluctuations in the medical care seg- ment of the Consumer Price Index (CPI). 2 Chart 2 shows that rates of change in the CPI for medical care (lagged 1 year) roughly paralleled changes in the health insurance index from ...
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