How will company health care offerings change in future?
Obesity will continue to contribute to rise in costs
It’s no secret that rising health care costs are putting the squeeze on U.S. employers. Despite this, a new survey by Aon Hewitt has found that 94 percent of them plan to continue offering health benefits to their workers – at least for the next three to five years.
However, the survey of of nearly 800 large and mid-size companies found big changes ahead in the way businesses will approach health benefits.
The amount employers spend on health care has increased by 40 percent in the past six years to approximately $8,800 per employee. Over this same period, employee premium and out-of-pocket costs have increased 64 percent to almost $5,000 per year. Aon Hewitt estimates that health care costs will continue to rise 8 percent to 9 percent per year for the foreseeable future.
Obesity, smoking and failure to comply with medications, are expected to continue to significantly contribute to costs.