Health Benefits In 2023: Premiums Increase With Inflation And Employer Coverage In The Wake Of Dobbs

• Published in: Health affairs (Millwood, Va.) Va.), 2023-11, Vol.42 (11), p.1606-18
• Main Authors: Claxton, Gary, Rae, Matthew, Damico, Anthony, Wager, Emma, Winger, Aubrey, Long, Michelle
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Abortion; Cost control; Cost sharing; Costs; Drug abuse; Employees; Employers; Enrollments; Families & family life; Health care expenditures; Health care industry; Health insurance; Health maintenance organizations; HMOs; Inflation; Insurance coverage; Interviews; Medical personnel; Mental health; Mental health services; Premiums; Primary care; Response rates; Small & medium sized enterprises-SME; Substance abuse; Supreme courts; Workers
• ISSN: 0278-2715; 1544-5208
• DOI: 10.1377/hlthaff.2023.00996

In 2023 the average annual premium for employer-sponsored family health insurance coverage was $23,968-an increase of $1,505 (7 percent) from 2022. Both single and family premiums increased faster in 2023 than in 2022, in a period of generally high inflation throughout the US economy. On average, covered workers contributed 17 percent ($1,401) of the cost of single coverage and 29 percent ($6,575) of the cost of family coverage. When compared to employers' perceptions of the number of primary care providers in their networks, a smaller share of employers believed that their provider networks had a sufficient number of mental health and substance abuse providers to provide timely access to services. One-quarter of employers indicated that their employees had a "high" level of concern with the level of cost sharing required by their plans. When asked about abortion coverage in the wake of the Supreme Court Dobbs decision, almost a third of large employers reported that their largest plan covered abortion in most or all circumstances.