HEALTH COVERAGE COSTS UP 13% FOR EMPLOYERS

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 29, 1992                   TAG: 9201290077
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Short
HEALTH COVERAGE COSTS UP 13% FOR EMPLOYERS
The cost of providing traditional medical coverage to employees rose 13 percent last year, according to a study released Tuesday.
Businesses paid an average of $3,573 per employee in 1991, up from $3,161 per worker in the previous year, said A. Foster Higgins & Co., an employee benefits consulting firm. The survey was based on responses from 2,409 U.S. companies.
John Erb, the study's author, predicted those costs would jump to $4,000 per worker this year. Thirty percent of employers surveyed said their costs exceeded $4,000 per worker last year.
Deductibles increased an average of $200 per worker last year from $150 in 1990, survey results showed. They also showed that average out-of-pocket expenditures for coverage rose $50 to $1,050 for individuals and $100 to $2,100 for family coverage.
Employers in the South Atlantic and New England regions were hit with the largest increases in their medical plan costs - 19.6 percent and 18.4 percent, respectively.
Foster Higgins also noted that among industry groups, the health services field posted a 21.1 percent increase in medical plan costs, followed by communications and financial services employers, both of whom experienced increases above 17 percent.
The cost of traditional medical plans has jumped 65 percent since 1988. But the increases, which registered more than 20 percent annually in recent years, did slow in 1991. Still, Foster Higgins noted that the 13 percent increase is four times as high as the increase in the Consumer Price Index.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB