Employers face a brutal increase in health-insurance premiums

Axios - Employers face a brutal increase in health-insurance premiums for 2023, Axios' Arielle Dreher writes from a Kaiser Family Foundation report out this morning.

• Premiums stayed relatively flat this year, even as wages and inflation surged. That reprieve was because many 2022 premiums were finalized last fall, before inflation took off.

Nearly 159 million Americans get health coverage through work — and coverage costs and benefits have become a critical factor in a tight labor market.Premiums have increased by 20% over the past five years, KFF says in its annual Employer Health Benefits Survey.

• An October survey of 1,200 small businesses found that nearly half had raised prices to offset rising costs of health care.

It cost an average of $22,463 to cover a family through employer-sponsored health insurance in 2022, KFF found.Workers contributed an average of $6,106.

Read the report ... Share this story.