Workers likely to pay more for health care

Most employers plan to lower their health care costs next year by tapping a familiar source of help: their workers.

Preliminary findings released this week from an employer survey by consulting firm Mercer Inc. show that 59 percent of U.S. employers will reduce their health costs in 2009 by increasing workers' deductibles, co-pays and percentages of a medical bill that workers pay.

Even with shifting costs to workers, U.S. employers still project a 5.7 percent increase in health benefits cost next year, according to the Mercer survey of 1,317 employers. That increase is lower than those of the previous 10 years but still higher than the general rate of inflation. Small businesses will face 10 percent increases.

The annual rise in benefit costs stems, in part, from the continuing increase in prices of medical services and of prescription drugs. And more medical services are being used per person, Holmes said.

Many employers have more moderate benefit increases than previous years, in part because they're focusing on health care as a mounting threat to profitability. "CEOs have put the cost of health care as one of their top business priorities," said Tony Holmes, an Atlanta-based health care consultant. Businesses are increasingly promoting wellness programs and installing high-deductible health plans, which lower their costs.

The full Mercer survey is expected to be released this fall.

Although many workers face growing out-of-pocket costs, they often see their health care premiums rise as well. Georgia's health plan that covers state employees and schoolteachers, for example, is increasing 2009 premiums by an average of 7.5 percent. The state health benefit plan covers 690,000 state employees, schoolteachers, dependents and retirees.

Such large employers with more negotiating clout can use their numbers to get more manageable insurance deals, but small businesses have a tougher time finding affordable coverage.

Health costs remain the No. 1 concern for small businesses both in Georgia and nationally, said David Raynor, state director of the National Federation of Independent Business. He said 52 percent of NFIB Georgia members in a 2007 survey said they're not offering health insurance to workers because of a lack of affordability -up from 36 percent in a similar survey in 2005.

A local NFIB member, Pat Kaemmerling of Access Computers, said her health premiums jumped 40 percent in her Norcross company's new benefit year, which began this month. The hike was bigger than usual, she said, because one employee had a serious illness and another worker's spouse fights a chronic medical condition.

"Any time you have an illness in a small group, you're really penalized," she said. "These people can't go out and get an individual policy. The insurance companies know that."

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