Families with employer-sponsored health insurance are paying more for less coverage, according to a
new report by the Commonwealth Fund that echoes prior studies on the issue.
Premiums for employer-sponsored family insurance rose 41% from 2003 to 2009, more than three times faster than median incomes, while annual deductibles rose 77%, according to the Commonwealth Fund.
Alaska, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, Wisconsin and Wyoming had the highest annual family premiums last year, exceeding $14,000 total. The lowest-cost states—including Alabama, Hawaii, Kansas, Ohio and Montana, had annual family premiums of between $11,000 and $12,000 in 2009, according to the report.
The health reform law offers opportunities to break the trend of rising premiums, the New York-based fund said, estimating that premium growth could slow between 1% to 1.5% annually until 2020 with payment system reforms, insurance rate review, the state insurance exchanges, expanded Medicaid and other of the reform law's provisions.
“The new law provides us with the opportunity to reverse some of these unsustainable increases,” said Karen Davis, president of the Commonwealth Fund.
