K-12 Tax & Spending Climate: The Cost to Families for Health Coverage and Care Has Risen More Than 2X Faster Than Wages and 3X Faster Than Inflation Over the Last Decade
A new KFF analysis that looked at both premiums and other out-of-pocket costs shows that families with coverage through a large employer paid 67 percent more for their health benefits and care in 2018 than a decade earlier.
In 2018, a typical family of four with large employer coverage spent $4,706 on their share of health premiums and $3,020 on cost sharing (such as deductibles, copayments and coinsurance) for a combined cost to the family of $7,726, the analysis finds. That was up from $2,838 in premiums and $1,779 in cost sharing in 2008, for a combined cost to the family of $4,617 a decade ago.
The rise in health costs borne directly by families outstripped the growth in wages (31%) and inflation (21%) over the 10-year period, according to the analysis. Over the same ten-year period, employers’ contributions toward their workers’ health insurance premiums increased 51 percent (from $10,008 to $15,159).
