Health-Care Premiums Expected To Jump 8.7% in 2008, Study Says

Victoria Knight
Wall Street Journal

Health-care premiums of employers and their workers rose by more than twice the rate of inflation in 2007, and cost increases are expected to accelerate next year, with employees picking up a larger slice of the bill, according to a study released Monday by Hewitt Associates, a global human resources company.

The cost of providing health-care benefits to employees rose by 5.3% on average in 2007, down from 7.9% in 2006 and the smallest increase in nine years. However, Hewitt predicts that health-care costs will jump by 8.7% on average in 2008, bringing the average annual premium cost per employee to $8,676 from $7,982 now. [...]