Workers’ Health Costs Skyrocket As Employers Reduce Benefits, Study Shows
Health care costs for mid-sized and large companies rose 3.2% in 2015, the lowest rate increase in 20 years. Employee costs, meanwhile, rose 134% over the past decade. Experts say deductible and out-of-pocket increases stem in large part from the health law's pending “Cadillac tax.”
USA Today:
Companies Continue Chipping Away At Health Insurance Benefits
Companies’ health care costs in 2015 rose at the lowest rate in at least 20 years, a report out Thursday shows, but workers' share of costs continue to skyrocket. The average health care rate increase for mid-sized and large companies was 3.2% this year, the lowest since the consulting firm Aon started tracking it in 1996. Despite this, the average amount workers have to contribute toward their health care is up more than 134% over the past decade and that trend will accelerate. (O'Donnell, 11/11)
In other benefits news, insurance keeps seniors working and coal operator Alpha wants to eliminate health subsidies for non-union retirees -
Health News Florida:
Seniors Staying On The Job For Health Insurance
Not every American 65 and older is worrying about Medicare's open enrollment period, now underway. Some who are eligible for the government insurance plan are staying on the job, and gaining access to employer-based plans they say are a better option. People like Largo resident Ken Milanese. who is up by 5 a.m. and out the door by 5:30. It's a familiar scene to anyone who works. But Milanese is 71. (Miller, 11/12)
The Associated Press:
Alpha Seeks Elimination Of Non-Union Retiree Benefits
Coal operator Alpha Natural Resources is seeking to eliminate health and other non-pension benefits for more than 4,500 non-union retirees and their eligible spouses and dependents. The benefits are a financial burden that cost the company about $2.7 million in 2014 and represent a liability of about $125 million on its balance sheet, Bristol, Virginia-based Alpha said in a recent filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Richmond, Virginia. (Ramsey, 11/11)
