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While inflation is easing across much of the economy, the health care sector has not seen such relief, The Wall Street Journal reports.
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 health care nonprofit KFF. The consecutive years of rapid increases have added more than $3,000 to the average family premium, which reached roughly $25,500 this year.
Businesses are carrying the brunt of the burden and absorbed this year’s higher premium costs—one of several signals in recent years that employers are sensitive to the limits of what workers can afford, says Matthew Rae, associate director of the KFF health care marketplace program and an author of the survey.
Employers spent about $1,880 more this year, bringing their average cost for family premiums to $19,276. Workers’ share of the average family premium dropped by roughly $280 from last year, to $6,296.
