Health insurance costs keep rising

In the ever-shifting world of company-provided health insurance, here’s a constant: It keeps getting more expensive.

Workers may learn that their doctor will no longer be covered or they might have to pay a higher deductible before coverage begins. Meanwhile, employers face the same big concern every year: The cost will probably rise higher than inflation.

Employer-sponsored insurance is the most common form of coverage in the United States. The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that it covers about 153 million people.

The cost of that coverage will rise another 5% next year, according to the National Business Group on Health, which does health policy work for large companies.

Business group CEO Brian Marcotte spoke recently with The Associated Press about the latest challenges in benefits.

What do big employers think about the possibility of “Medicare for All” replacing what they offer, as some Democratic presidential candidates have proposed? Do they like the idea that the government may relieve them of this huge expense?

Employers want their employees to have access to the most efficient, high quality and affordable health care possible. Employers at this point view what they provide as being better quality.

The biggest challenge (they) see with what’s being proposed now, nobody is talking about how you reform the delivery system to be more efficient. There’s 30% waste within the system. You can’t just expand access (to care) without addressing how care is being delivered.

There’s a wave of expensive specialty drugs being developed. Some cost a million dollars or more. Will employees have access to them?

I think employees will have access. Some companies will delay the first six months or so when a new therapy comes out before they cover it. Employers just want to make sure that they’re working ... as advertised, and it gives their pharmacy benefit manger an opportunity to manage those therapies appropriately.

No one’s really thinking of not covering these, but they’re very concerned about the price.

Employers are very interested in covering telemedicine to improve access to care, but employees have been slow to use it. Do they not trust it?

It may be more of a matter of not being used to accessing health care in that way.

Companies are not raising deductibles as much as they have, but they still want to cut costs. Where are they turning their attention?

They realize that health care is complex, that employees don’t touch health care with a lot of frequency or most don’t. They’re bringing in more services to help employees navigate their benefits, navigate the delivery system, understand their treatment options.