Enrollment in High Premium Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance, Private Industry, 2008. Statistical Brief No.283

摘要

This Statistical Brief reports estimates on the percentage of private sector employees enrolled in employer-sponsored health insurance plans with high premiums, those with annual premiums equal to or greater than 7,200 for single coverage plans, and equal to or greater than 19,000 for family coverage plans. According to 2008 data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey-Insurance Component (MEPS-IC), these values represent the 95th percentile of private employer-sponsored health insurance premiums for single coverage and family coverage plans. That is, of all enrollees within each coverage type only five percent had premiums at or above these amounts. For single coverage, this was 1.6 million enrollees; for family coverage, this was 1.0 million enrollees (not including dependents covered under the plan) in 2008. Estimates are discussed for the employer characteristics of firm size and industry. Other factors that can affect premiums include benefit packages that are more or less generous (through the absence or presence of deductibles and co-pays, for example) and demographic factors (such as age of enrollees or work schedule). Note that results for employee-plus-one coverage are similar to those for family and single coverage. (See the Definitions section for detailed descriptions of the three coverage types.) All estimates discussed in the text are significantly different from the overall 95th percentile estimates at the 0.05 level unless otherwise noted.