Americans with job-based insurance can expect to pay more for less next year. Hit by the recession and rising health-care costs, employers are cutting a larger chunk than usual out of their health-care budgets, new national surveys show. In 2010, nearly two-thirds of employers plan to shift more of the cost of care to workers and their families through higher premiums contributions, deductibles and copayments. One out of five companies plans to cut out higher-cost health plan options in favor of less generous coverage, according to the preliminary findings from a survey by the consulting firm Mercer LLC . These finding are echoed in a new survey by Watson Wyatt Worldwide, a consulting firm. Encouraging workers to stay healthy and kicking people who aren’t eligible for coverage off their health plans are other tools employers plan to use to keep the overall annual cost growth at 6%. See more here . The findings underscore the struggle employers are facing in offering affordable health insurance to their workers. They also point to the enormity of the challenge that President Obama faces as he

seeks to expand access to coverage for millions of Americans who lack it, while keeping down the cost. Workers are battling record health-care costs that have climbed at several times the rate of inflation and wage increases for more than a decade. The average annual premium for family coverage in an employer-sponsored plan now stands at $13,375, more than double the $5,791 it cost in 1999. Employees annual contributions to those premiums have almost tripled, to $3,515 in 2009 from $1,543 in 1999, according to a new survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Educational Trust. Workers also are paying more beyond the premiums: two in 10 insured workers now face deductibles of at least $1,000. Many high-deductible health plans cover some preventive care or prescription drugs before the deductible is met. About 8% of workers are enrolled in HDHPs paired with savings accounts that employers can fund and employees can use to pay for medical expenses tax-free. Image: iStockphoto

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Workers To Pay More For Less Health Care In 2010