Latest Survey Shows Costs Continue to Rise
Mercer is out with preliminary results of its survey of employer health costs for 2012, and it shows a continued upward trend in health spending by employers. Employers project benefit costs will go up by 5.4 percent in 2012, a rate that “remains well above both general inflation and growth in workers’ earnings.” What’s more, cost growth would be significantly higher – 7.1 percent – if many businesses had not decided to trim their benefit packages; many firms are raising contributions for self-only coverage (33%), raising contributions for dependent coverage (36%), raising deductibles and other employee cost-sharing (33%). Overall, more than six in ten employers (61%) are raising employee cost-sharing in some way – this at the same time that premiums themselves continue to go up by more than inflation.
Some may claim that next year’s projected increases of “only” 5.4 percent – still well above inflation – represents a “successes,” because premium growth slowed in some cases. But as the Mercer release itself acknowledge, to the extent health care spending trends slowed, they have likely been due to the bad economy and individuals foregoing treatments – which is reflective of the “stimulus’” failure to create the jobs it promised. Moreover, the President repeatedly promised during his campaign that he would “cut” premiums by an average of $2,500 per family – meaning premiums would go DOWN, not merely just “go up by less than projected.” (A visual representation of the rhetoric versus reality is pasted below.) Today’s survey once again demonstrates how Obamacare is failing to live up to its promises.
