Colorado businesses saw a double- digit jump in employee health-care costs this year for the seventh year in a row, according to a survey released today by the Lockton Cos. LLC in Denver.
Employers’ costs jumped by 10.2 percent, Lockton found, and that’s only because the companies surveyed offered employees less-comprehensive benefits this year.
If health-insurance plans had stayed stable, employers’ costs would have risen by 12.9 percent, according to Lockton.
The results come one week after a national survey suggested Colorado employers saw only a 4.7 percent jump in health-care costs.
“I can’t find a single employer in our Colorado survey that comes anywhere close to that number,” said Bill Lindsay, president of Lockton’s Benefit Group. “They’re all much higher.”
New York-based Mercer Human Resource Consulting produced the national report.
Lockton sent surveys to 494 employers in the state, and 88 responded, Lindsay said. It’s possible that businesses were more likely to respond if their health-care costs had jumped, he said.
Among the companies that responded were firms in aviation,manufacturing, health care, law, research and the nonprofit sector.
Donna Marshall, executive director of the Colorado Business Group on Health, said most companies she deals with are looking at 10 percent increases this year, too.
“You see health-care cost increases still outstripping the other major indicators, the Consumer Price Index and the gross domestic product,” Marshall said.
That hurts employees, who are finding that pay raises aren’t enough to cover increased health-care costs, she said.
That’s exactly what Lockton found, Lindsay said. Employers, faced with increased costs, shifted part of the burden to employees by increasing deductibles and the cost of office visits.
Companies surveyed reported annual merit raises averaged 3.5 percent, Lockton reported — which was generally less than the increase in health costs for employees, Lindsay said.
Marshall said it’s difficult to calculate increases in health-insurance costs for companies and employees because some people insure only themselves and some insure their whole family. Plans for individuals and families may see different increases.
“Bottom line, though, is benefits are being stripped, even at the companies that are trying to deal with this aggressively,” Marshall said.
Katy Human: 303-954-1910 or khuman@denverpost.com
