Trends - Health benefits in 2008: Premiums moderately higher, while enrollment in consumer-directed plans rises in small firms

Health Affairs

Volumn 27, Issue 6, 2008, Pages

  Claxton, Gary ^a   Gabel, Jon R ^b   DiJulio, Bianca ^b   Pickreign, Jeremy ^c   Whitmore, Heidi ^d   Finder, Benjamin ^b   Jarlenski, Marian ^b   Hawkins, Samantha ^e  

^a HENRY J KAISER FAMILY FOUNDATION   (United States)

^b KFF ^*

^c NORC   (United States)

^d NORC   (United States)

^e Health Research and Educational Trust   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; EMPLOYER; HEALTH CARE COST; HEALTH CARE ORGANIZATION; HEALTH CARE PLANNING; HEALTH INSURANCE; HEALTH PROGRAM; HEALTH SURVEY; PENSIONER; CLASSIFICATION; CONSUMER; ECONOMICS; HEALTH PROMOTION; INFORMATION PROCESSING; ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT; UNITED STATES; UTILIZATION REVIEW;

CONSUMER PARTICIPATION; DATA COLLECTION; HEALTH BENEFIT PLANS, EMPLOYEE; HEALTH PROMOTION; UNITED STATES;

EID: 56649109640     PISSN: 02782715     EISSN: 02782715     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1377/hlthaff.27.6.w492     Document Type: Article

References (11)

1. Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, Health Insurance Coverage in America, 2006 Data Update (Washington: Kaiser Commission, October 2007).
2. For more details on the changes, see the online Appendix, at http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/full/hlthaff.27.6.w492/DC2.
3. For additional information on the change in reporting premium increases, see Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation/Health Research and Educational Trust, "Survey Design and Methods," in Employer Health Benefits: 2008 Annual Survey, 24 September 2008, http://www.kff.org/insurance/7790/index. cfm (accessed 24 September 2008).
4. Federal law requires a deductible of at least $1,100 for single coverage and $2,200 for family coverage for HSA-qualified health plans in 2008.
5. The differences between the 2007 and 2008 premium values for both single and family coverage are significant (p < 0.05).
6. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index, U.S. City Average of Annual Inflation (April to April), 2008 (Washington: BLS, 2008);
7. and BLS, Seasonally Adjusted Data from the Current Employment Statistics Survey (April to April), 2008 (Washington: BLS, 2008). The use of the April-to-April time period is consistent with our previous practice. We note, however, that the May-to-May inflation estimate is higher (4.2 percent). Because the estimate for the percentage increase in premiums comes from a survey, it has a 95 percent confidence interval wide enough to overlap the changes both for earnings and for inflation, which are estimated with much greater accuracy. The premium change does not differ significantly from either of those measures.
8. There are two types of deductibles for family coverage: an aggregate deductible where all covered expenses from family members count toward meeting the deductible amount, and a separate per person deductible where each family member must meet his or her own deductible amount before coverage begins.
9. There are insufficient data to report the average HMO deductible for workers in small firms (3-199 workers).
10. The 2.2 million workers enrolled in HDHP/HRAs and 3.2 million enrolled in HSA-qualified HDHPs do not add to the total of 5.5 million workers enrolled in HDHP/SOs reported because of rounding. These estimates include workers enrolled in the plans offered by their employer and do not include any dependents that may be covered by the plan. Also, the sample does not include federal employers or firms with fewer than three employees.
11. An error in our analytic file last year resulted in employer HRA contribution estimates that were too low. We estimated the effects of these errors on the values that we reported last year; and these are discussed in "Methods" (p. w452). When we used the corrected HRA contribution estimates, we found no statistical difference between the 2007 and 2008 average HRA contributions for single and family coverage.