Health insurance premiums rise 7 percent: study

The average annual premium for employer-sponsored family health insurance coverage rose by 7 percent in 2023, according to a study published Wednesday.

The results were derived from health research organization KFF’s annual Employer Health Benefits Survey. The organization surveyed private firms and nonfederal government employers with three or more employees, receiving 2,133 completed responses from the 24,891 firms that they sampled.

The survey found the average annual premium for employer-sponsored family health insurance went from $22,463 in 2022 to $23,968 in 2023. For family coverage, covered employees contributed an average of 29 percent of the total cost, compared to single coverage employees who contributed an average of 17 percent.

This year, workers contributed an average of $6,575 toward the cost of the health insurance coverage. The average premium for both single and family coverage has grown by 22 percent since 2018.

Almost a quarter of employers also said in they survey that they will increase workers’ contributions in the next two years. Average worker contributions have generally followed an upward trend in the 25 years that KFF has conducted the survey.

KFF noted that the cost of an average family premium was similar for workers in both small and large firms, while workers in small firms paid about 5 percent more for a single premium than those in larger firms. However, the survey found that about 30 percent of covered workers at small firms were enrolled in plans in which their employer paid the entire premium for single coverage.

The group also noted the 7 percent increase is close to the year-over-year rise in workers’ wages and inflation, which were both between 5 percent and 6 percent. Between 2021 and 2022, the annual premiums for employer-sponsored family health coverage only rose by 1 percent.

According to KFF, 3.1 million out of the 73.6 million workers who are covered by employers’ health benefits were employed by the firms in the study. The survey was conducted from January to July of this year.