Thursday, November 9, 2006
2:00 - 3:00 p.m. Central Time (12 PT, 1 MT, 3 ET)

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Employer-sponsored health insurance covers more non-elderly Americans than any other type of health insurance. To provide real-time information on employer-sponsored health benefits, the Kaiser Family Foundation and HRET conduct an annual survey of private and public employers. The annual Employer Health Benefits Survey tracks changes in premiums, offer rates, deductibles, and more, stratified by industry, geography, and firm size. This year’s findings include:

• The average health insurance premium for family coverage increased by 7.7 percent, more than double the average increases in both workers’ earnings and overall inflation.
• Nearly all large businesses offer health benefits to their workers, fewer than half of the smallest firms do.
• Sixteen percent of small employers and 13 percent of large employers say that they consider consumer-directed health plans “very effective” at controlling health care costs.

Find out more about recent trends and their potential impact on payers and providers. Don’t miss this exclusive 45 minute presentation by investigators from the Kaiser Family Foundation, followed by an interactive Q&A session.

Presenters:

Gary Claxton is a Vice President and the Director of the Health Care Marketplace Project at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Prior to joining the Foundation, Mr. Claxton was a senior researcher at the Institute for Health Care Research and Policy at Georgetown University, where his research focused on health insurance and health care financing. From 1997 to 2001, Mr. Claxton was the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health Policy at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where he advised the Secretary on health policy issues including: access to health insurance, Medicare reform, administration of Medicaid, and financing of prescription drugs. Previously, he was a consultant for the Lewin Group, a special deputy in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, an insurance analyst for the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, and a health policy analyst for the American Association of Retired Persons.

Bianca DiJulio is a Policy Analyst for the Health Care Marketplace Project at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.  The Project provides information, research, and analysis about trends in the health care market and about policy proposals that relate to our changing health care system.  Ms. DiJulio is a principal analyst on the Employer Health Benefits Survey.

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Resources:

 Press Release, September 26
 Annual Survey, 2006 Summary of Findings
 Chart Pack