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Typical Health Insurance Premiums

With the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, and the efforts of Congressional Republicans to repeal or scale back the law in 2011, the effort to control escalating health care costs has become one of the hot button issues in American politics. Amid the partisan wrangling, it's important to keep health care costs in perspective. The health insurance market is divided into workplace group plans and private individual and family plans.

  1. The Group Health Market

    • More than 157 million Americans get medical coverage via employer-sponsored group plans, making workplace group insurance by far the most frequent source of health insurance coverage in America, according to a 2010 survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation. The survey also found that overall premium costs have risen sharply in the previous decade. Employer contributions to worker health insurance premiums have risen by more than 100 percent, while out-of-pocket contributions by employers have risen by 147 percent over the same period. Workers are taking on more of the health insurance burden.

    Typical Group Health Premiums

    • Premium levels vary significantly with the type of plan the employer offers and the worker selects. However, for single, stand-alone plans excluding family coverage, total premiums averaged $5,130 per worker per year for health maintenance organization plans, or HMOs, while POS plans cost an average of $5,239 per year, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation survey. Workers typically paid a little under 20 percent of those premiums. For family plans, annual premiums ranged from $12,384 for a high deductible health plan to $14,125 for the average HMO plan. Workers picked up an average of $3,522 and $4,357 per year for these plans, respectively.

    Individual Plan Customers

    • According to a June 2010 survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, individual plans -- purchased independently from the group health insurance market -- covered about 14 million Americans. The largest number of these Americans, about 45 percent, were self-employed or owners of small businesses. Twenty-five percent of them were working for an employer but could not get group coverage, either because they didn't qualify for the group plan or it was too expensive. About 9 percent had purchased individual coverage to stay covered between jobs and 4 percent were students.

    Individual Plan Costs

    • State laws can have a significant effect on premiums, as can local economic factors. But nationwide, the average annual premium for 18-34 year olds was $2,630, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Those aged between 35 and 49 years old paid an average of $2,843 for individual coverage and $6,864 for family coverage. Those aged 50 to 64 paid an average of $3,606 for individual coverage and $7,102 for family coverage. Overall, this population reported spending an average of $1,690 in out-of-pocket costs over the preceding 12 months.

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