Among firms that do not offer health benefits to their employees, the average amount these firms estimate they could pay for an employee’s health insurance is $153 per month. The average amount these firms estimate their workers could afford to pay for health insurance is $99 per month (Exhibit 2.6).
Twenty-one percent of firms estimate they could contribute between $101 and $200 monthly per employee, and another 15% estimate they could contribute more than $200 monthly.
Cost pressures appear to have encouraged some to shift towards alternative benefit designs (Exhibits 2.7, 2.8).
There has been considerable interest in so-called consumer- driven health plans. One commonly advocated model pairs a relatively large deductible plan (e.g., a $1,000 deductible) with a health savings account. A health savings account is a pre-tax account funded by an employer that permits employees to make their own choices about how much they spend on more routine health care expenses.
Five percent of all firms, and 17% of firms with more than 5,000 employees, report offering a health plan with a high deductible (greater than $1,000 for a single individual) in 2003. Of the firms offering these plans, approximately 13% (representing 0.1% of all firms) report supplementing the plan by offering a health savings account (Exhibit 2.7).
Although the number of employers offering high deductible plans has been modest to date, employer interest in this approach may fuel future growth. When asked about changes that they may make to their health plans in the future, 8% of employers overall, and 16% of employers with more than 5,000 employees said that they were very likely to introduce a high-deductible plan in the next year (Exhibit 2.8).
