With employee benefits in the news lately given the delay of the employer mandate, Automatic Data Processing recently released a report detailing key trends in what health benefits businesses have offered to their workforce, as well as information on whether these employees have been eligible to receive them.
According to the 2013 ADP Annual Health Benefits Report, over the past three years, the share of employees who work at least 40 hours per week and are eligible to receive health benefits remained in balanced territory. Similarly, the number of people who opted to participate – rather than seeking out coverage on their own through a private insurer – remained in neutral territory as well.
The study also showed that what business owners and employees contribute to these health plans rose. At 14 percent, average monthly health premiums increased from 2010 to 2013. However, the elevation in prices has eased in more recent years, falling to 3.1 percent from 7.6 percent in 2010 to 2011.
The report also detailed what premiums typically cost in association with what workers made in salary. ADP says that upper income earners typically had higher insurance costs. At the same time, though, these people also usually had more family members, or dependents, to cover. After adjusting for this, premiums averaged $388 for each policyholder regardless of earnings in 2013.
Perhaps because they tend to be healthier, workers under the age of 30 were less likely to purchase coverage from their insurer. ADP found that approximately 50 percent of people 30 years of age or younger participated in their company's health benefits plan.
Health experts encourage business owners to re-evaluate their benefits packages now that the mandate has been shelved until 2015. The extra time they've been given may help them achieve HR compliance, enabling them to devote less time to the issue during hectic times of the year.
