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A strong job market may have helped make paying for employer-sponsored health coverage a little easier for typical workers in 2023 than in 2020.
Kristen Kolb and other analysts at the Commonwealth Fund, a health policy organization, have reported data supporting that conclusion in a new look at workers' spending on premiums and deductibles for employer-sponsored health coverage.
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The analysts compared what insured employees spend on deductibles and their share of the health coverage premiums for family coverage to median income levels in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Average coverage costs amounted to just 10.1% of the median household income in 2023, down from 10.1% in 2020, according to the analysts.
Related: 2025 employee benefits & workplace predictions: Health care cost
Workers' spending on health coverage costs increased over that period, but workers' income increased faster, the analysts write.
The picture was different in the late 2010s. Then, workers' coverage spending was rising faster than median family income.
The analysts contend that the country still needs to find ways to make coverage more affordable for workers.
They note that the cost of premiums and deductibles exceeded 10% of median income in 22 states in 2023.
"This does not account for additional out-of-pocket costs that employees and their families may spend, such as copayments and coinsurance," the analysts write.
Implications: For benefits buyers and advisors, the new analysis could serve as a source of health cost benchmarking data. The study appendix provides a set of state health coverage cost data tables.
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Allison Bell
Allison Bell, a senior reporter at ThinkAdvisor and BenefitsPRO, previously was an associate editor at National Underwriter Life & Health. She has a bachelor's degree in economics from Washington University in St. Louis and a master's degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She can be reached through X at @Think_Allison.
