Family coverage for employer-provided health care now costs more than a Ford Fiesta. | REUTERS Health premiums more than new car

Premiums for employer-provided health insurance jumped 8-9 percent in 2011, passing $15,000 for family coverage — which is more than the cost of a Ford Fiesta.

That’s a big jump from the 3 percent increase in 2010. But it’s in line with historical increases that have averaged just over 10 percent per year since 2001, according to the annual Kaiser Family Foundation's Employer Health Benefits survey.


The Kaiser survey also found that 2.3 million young adults now have coverage under their parents’ policies — double the recent U.S. Census estimate of gains since the ACA allowed young adults to stay on their parents’ policies until age 26. Kaiser surveyed employers about the numbers of dependents they were now covering, while the Census counted the net increase of young adults who have coverage under age 26.

Critics have blamed rising insurance premiums on the 2010 health care law, but Kaiser Family Foundation president and CEO Drew Altman said that’s not the case.

Altman attributed most of the increase to rising health costs. The new legal requirements that expanded preventive care and added those young adults contributed to about 1.5 percent of the price increase.

“Since we began doing this survey 13 years ago, worker contributions to premiums have increased 168 percent, wages 50 percent, and inflation 38 percent,” Altman wrote in an essay accompanying the release of the survey done by the foundation and the Health Research and Benefits Trust.

"There are people who blame everything on the Affordable Care Act, including the weather," he told POLITICO in an interview. "The big increase we see this year is not an increase of the Affordable Care Act.” In fact, he added the health reform legislation contains tools that could restrain cost growth in the future.

The rising costs of insurance “underscores that we need to do more about the underlying problem of health care costs in the country,” Altman added. “Right now the main weapon we have long term that could address the problem of health care costs term are the provisions of the Affordable Care Act. There's nothing else on the table.”

The average premium for employer-sponsored insurance for an individual was $5,429 and $15,073 for a family in 2011. But relatively little of the premium increase came directly out of the employees’ pockets, on average $22 more for an individual policy, and $132 more for a family policy. That’s not a statistically significant increase. But some economists say that health costs have been hitting the family pocketbook in another way, by slowing wage growth.

Employers on average paid an additional $358 in premiums for an individual policy, and $1,171 for a family. They have shifted some costs to workers. For instance, one in three covered workers now has a deductible of at least $1,000 for an individual, the survey conducted by Kaiser

The Obama administration attempted to head off likely attacks blaming the ACA for the price rise.

"These premiums were generally set in 2010, when insurance companies thought medical costs would be significantly higher than they turned out to be," an entry on the White House blog said. "The Bureau of Labor Statistics found that the health insurance employer cost index [a measure of the price of health care services] was the lowest it has been in over 10 years in the first half of 2011.

“Additionally, some insurers assumed that the Affordable Care Act would dramatically raise their costs. In the end, both assumptions were wrong — but insurance companies still charged high premiums and earned impressive profits," it said.

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 11:22 a.m. on September 27, 2011.



CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correct the description of the impact of the premium increases.

CORRECTION: Corrected by: Vivyan Tran @ 09/27/2011 03:38 PM CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correct the description of the impact of the premium increases.