Survey: Group insurance rates rise for employers

"Group health insurance rates for small and midsize employers are surging for 2011 renewals, according to a survey by the Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers," Business Insurance reports. "Rather than absorbing the costs, most employers are changing their plan designs and passing on some of the increased costs to their employees, according to the CIAB's 'June Employee Benefits Market Survey' released this week." Many businesses are responding to increases of up to 20 percent by implementing "higher deductibles, copayments and premium contributions, according to the survey" (Wojcik, 6/3).

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.