Report: Workers' medical costs projected to jump next year by more than 12 percent

Chicago Tribune: Health care bills for an average employee are slated to climb more than $486 next year, a 12.4 percent increase from this year, according to a study by Hewitt Associates. "In 2011, the combined average of premium and out-of-pocket costs for health care coverage for an employee is projected to climb to $4,386. … Companies, meanwhile, will see their health insurance costs go up nearly 9 percent, to an annual tab of $9,821 per employee, or double the employer's annual worker tab from nine years ago." An aging workforce, rising overall health costs and the new health law will also affect health costs. The study found that workers' out-of-pocket costs will rise "to $181 a month in expenses, which include covering deductibles as well as co-payments and co-insurance for prescriptions and visits to the doctor" (Japsen, 9/26).

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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.