spends on employer-sponsored health care insurance per year is
edging closer to one month’s salary, reveals a study by Aon
Consulting, a unit of risk management and insurance brokerage Aon
Corporation.
According to Aon the median annual household income in the US is
about $48,000, ($4,000 per month) while the median annual
contribution for family healthcare coverage is $3,120, up 15
percent compared with 2007 and 22 percent compared with 2006.
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Indicative of the increased burden on employees, Aon noted that
organisations sponsoring health plans have experienced annual
healthcare cost increases of about 10 percent since 2006.
However, in a survey of 1,100 US-based organisations Aon found a
strong move towards improving the health and productivity of their
employees.
“This is a change from the traditional perspective of cutting
medical programme costs without regard to long-term impact or
worker productivity,” said Aon Consulting US health and benefits
practice director John Zern.
According to Aon 64 percent of survey respondents are actively
promoting their employees health with the most common approach
being wellness programmes primarily designed to prevent the
development of chronic conditions such as diabetes and heart
disease.
As an example, Aon noted that 46 percent of employers surveyed will
be implementing smoking cessation programmes during 2008, up from
14 percent of employers last year.
