The average cost of health coverage offered by employers pushed toward $19,000 for a family plan this year, while the share of firms providing insurance to workers continued to edge lower, according to a major survey.

Annual premiums rose 3% to $18,764 for an employer plan in 2017, from $18,142 last year, the same rate of increase as in 2016, according to an annual poll of employers performed by the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation along with the Health Research & Educational Trust, a nonprofit affiliated with the American Hospital Association.

The trend of relatively gradual premium increases has continued for several years, with the growth of premiums damped by a shift toward bigger out-of-pocket costs for employees in the form of high deductibles—a move that slowed this year, as average deductibles were roughly flat compared with 2016.

Still, the rise of premiums over time has resulted in family health plans that can annually cost more than a new car, with the cost split between firms and employees. Employees paid on average $5,714, or 31%, of the premiums, for a family plan in 2017, according to Kaiser.

For an individual worker, the average annual cost of employer coverage was $6,690 in the 2017 survey, or 4% higher than last year, with employees paying 18% of the total.


Another trend was also sustained in the 2017 survey: a decline in the share of employers offering health insurance despite a labor market that shows signs of tightening—at least in certain regions and sectors. The move has been driven by a drop-off among the smallest firms.

This year, 53% of employers in the survey offered health benefits, down from 56% last year and 61% in 2012. Just half of firms with 3 to 49 workers offered health insurance this year, the first time the share reached that threshold. Five years ago, 59% of companies in that category offered health benefits.

Gary Claxton, a vice president at the foundation, said that the overall cost of insurance appears to be driving small firms, particularly those with low-wage workers, to stop offering health benefits. Indeed, among small employers that didn’t offer health insurance, 44% said the biggest reason for not providing the benefit was its cost. “It’s harder for them to maintain coverage when it’s so expensive,” Mr. Claxton said.

However, among small employers that didn’t provide health coverage, 16% did give workers some money they could use toward purchasing a plan themselves.


Kaiser foundation officials said it wasn’t clear why the growth in deductibles appeared to pause this year. The average general deductible for single coverage among all workers, including those with no deductible, this year was $1,221. That is the same as last year, but up sharply from $802 in 2012. This year, 28% of covered workers were enrolled in high-deductible plans that can be paired with savings accounts that aren’t taxed, compared with 29% last year and 19% five years ago.

Drew Altman, chief executive of the Kaiser foundation, said it was too soon to tell if the growth in deductibles would quickly resume next year, or if employers are reluctant to keep pushing the tactic.

“We’ll have to watch it,” Mr. Altman said. “It’s possible it’s playing itself out or reaching some kind of natural limit.”

One factor that had helped encourage the adoption of higher-deductible plans, a tax in the Affordable Care Act on high-cost employer coverage, is now slated to take effect in 2020. But it has drawn opposition from both Democrats and Republicans. Employers may be assuming that it is unlikely the tax will ever hit, easing the urgency on ratcheting up deductibles.


The Kaiser survey was conducted between January and June of this year and included 2,137 randomly selected employers that responded to the full telephone survey.

Write to Anna Wilde Mathews at anna.mathews@wsj.com