Job-Based Health-Care Costs Outstrip Wages

BERKELEY, Calif.—The costs of job-based health coverage for workers in California have risen much faster than wages over the past ten years, according to a study released earlier this month by the University of California at Berkeley Labor Center. Premiums have increased by 49% since 2008, it said, and now cost on average almost $21,000 for a family and $9,000 for a single person. Workers on average pay 14% of their income for individual-insurance premiums and 27% for a family plan. While 46% of California workers whose insurance policies have deductibles are below the national average of 82%, those costs have risen by more than 75% since 2008 after adjusting for inflation. The average deductible in 2018 was about $1,400 for individuals and $2,700 for families, and the proportion of workers in high-deductible plans almost quadrupled from 2008 to 2018, from 4% to 15%. Workers at nonunion employers were more than three times as likely to have deductibles as union workers, by 62% to 19%. Read more