Most Americans who have health insurance through their employer are not only satisfied with their plans, but many also feel their premium and deductible costs are reasonable – though they are concerned about rising costs, according to America’s Health Insurance Plans’ survey, “The Value of Employer-Provided Coverage.”
Luntz Global Partners conducted the survey on behalf of AHIP, querying 1,000 U.S. adults with employer-provided coverage. A majority (71 percent) of respondents are satisfied with their current health insurance plan, while 19 percent are dissatisfied and 9 percent say they have neither favorable nor unfavorable opinions.
More than half (52 percent) say their premiums and deductibles are reasonable, while 41 percent say their premiums are unreasonable and 36 percent say their deductibles are unreasonable. A few (7 percent) say their premiums are neither reasonable nor unreasonable, and 12 percent say that for their deductibles.
Most respondents feel their health plan “has their back,” protecting them when they need them most. When asked if they had a medical emergency and were required to go to the hospital, 75 percent of the respondents say their coverage would protect them from the majority of their medical costs, while 25 percent do not have confidence their plan would adequately protect them.
“Employer-provided coverage is a pillar of Americans’ health and financial security,” says AHIP’s president and CEO Marilyn Tavenner. “The results reaffirm that American workers and their families depend on their coverage to provide them with protection and peace of mind.”
“Employers and workers have good reason to be worried about rising healthcare costs,” writes HRDive, citing an Aon study that predicted health care cost increases will rise by 7.2 percent this year, up from 6.9 percent in 2017.
While the federal government has not been able to bend the cost curve, private companies are now trying to “transform the healthcare industry itself” – most notably Amazon, JPMorgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway’s plans to form a joint healthcare company, HRDive writes.
“Details on the partnership are scarce at the moment, but the hope among industry leaders is that this and other private sector efforts will move the needle forward toward delivering savings to the average worker,” HRDive writes.