2016 Health Plan Trends

More employees moving into lower-cost medical plans contributed to one of the smallest increases in total health benefit cost per employee in decades: 2016's average increase of 2.4% is the lowest since 2013 and, before that, since 1997. Enrollment in high-deductible consumer-directed health plans (CDHPs) has been rising for a decade and in 2016 jumped to 29% of all covered workers, up from 25% in 2015. As employees are asked to take on more financial responsibility for their healthcare, employers added services to help them manage out-of-pocket spending. The provision of telemedicine services nearly doubled and a growing number of employers contracted with a specialty vendor to provide information about provider cost and quality.

Healthcare policy in the US will almost certainly undergo significant change under the new administration. In the summer of 2016, about half of all large employers – but just 36% of those with 20,000 or more employees -- were in favor of repealing and replacing the ACA. At the time of the presentation, we will incorporate what we know about the future of ACA and the implications for employer health benefit strategies.