Input Stories

The price of providing employees with health insurance continues to increase at a historic rate, putting pressure on employers of all sizes (The Wall Street Journal, subscription).  
 
What’s going on: “The cost of employer health insurance rose 7% for a second straight year, maintaining a growth rate not seen in more than a decade, according to an annual survey by the healthcare nonprofit KFF. The back-to-back years of rapid increases have added more than $3,000 to the average family premium, which reached roughly $25,500 this year.”

• Employers largely absorbed the added expenses and spent about $1,880 more in 2024 than they had in 2023, “bringing their average cost for family premiums to $19,276.” 

Why it matters: Manufacturers are committed to offering health-care benefits so they can effectively attract and retain employees to maintain a healthy and productive workforce. They believe it is the right thing to do for their workers. Rising costs, however, make it more difficult for manufacturers to fulfill this commitment and for workers to afford their plans. 

• In the Q2 2024 NAM Manufacturers’ Outlook Survey, more than two-thirds of respondents cited rising health-care costs as a top business challenge. The challenge is particularly acute for smaller manufacturers.   

The NAM offers solutions: Congress can help make health care more affordable by passing pharmacy benefit manager reform this year, including:

• Policies to increase transparency into PBMs’ business practices;
• Requirements that PBMs pass through 100% of rebates to health plan sponsors and workers; and
• Delinking PBM compensation from the list prices of medicines. 

And … Congress must also continue to support the employer-sponsored health insurance system by maintaining the favorable tax treatment of health care for manufacturers and workers and by protecting the Employee Retirement Income Security Act’s federal preemption.