EON

Washington (EON) – Health insurance premiums are on the rise as the premiums paid by workers and their employers rose by 6.1% on average this year.

This placed the rise in health care premiums above the rate at which inflation is increasing along with pay increases.

This means that more of the money people are earning is going towards paying for the health insurance and less of it is coming home to care for their families.

Premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance averaged out for a family at $12,000. Employees picked up about 25% of that cost on average.

This year the premiums for families rose by 6.1%. This is the lowest growth since 1999 but it still outpaced inflation and the rise in the pay levels of the workers.

Wages rose on average 3.7% meaning that they were way behind the rise in health care costs while inflation also fell behind rising only 2.6%.

Since 2001 premiums have rose by 78% with wages only going up 19% and inflation only 17%.