--- title: Employee Health Insurance Costs Are Up a ‘Nasty’ 7% This Year description: Health insurance premiums are up 7% over the past year, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation report, with more price increases coming. authors: - name: Adam Hardy role: Lead Data Reporter url: https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/ bio: Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. Adam’s work has also appeared in Business Insider, Forbes, Nasdaq, The Penny Hoarder, Yahoo! Finance and more than a dozen local and regional newspapers. education: University of South Florida, BA, Magazine Journalism at_money_since: 2021 articles: 501 covers: - Insurance - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology also_seen_in: - The Penny Hoarder - Forbes Advisor - Creative Loafing - The New York Times - The Washington Post - Bloomberg - Harvard Law School - The Federal Register - National Consumer Law Center - CBS News - Becker's Hospital Review - Business Insider - Mother Jones - The Week - Fortune - The Philadelphia Inquirer - National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NAFSAA) - Education Advisory Board (EAB) - The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) - This Morning with Gordon Deal - Empower - Reddit social: - https://www.x.com/hardyjournalism - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hardyjournalism/ editors: - name: Brad Tuttle role: Senior Editor url: https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/ bio: Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals. education: Columbia University School of Journalism, MS at_money_since: 2014 articles: 366 covers: - Insurance - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle - https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225 former_staff: true published: '2023-10-18T15:59:27.000Z' modified: '2024-01-10T15:16:29.000Z' section: Insurance word_count: 453 canonical: https://money.com/employee-health-insurance-costs-increase-2023/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Photo-illustration of a receipt bar graph with money and pills in the background.](https://img.money.com/2023/10/News-Health-Care-Costs-Rise.jpg) Inflation has finally come for health insurance premiums. The cost of private health insurance is increasing rapidly after a brief respite during the pandemic. Employer-sponsored health plans in 2023 are 7% pricier than last year, according to a [new study](http://www.kff.org/ehbs) released Wednesday by the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF). “Rising employer health care premiums have resumed their nasty ways,” KFF President and CEO Drew Altman said in a news release shared with Money. “Overall, the nation has no strategy on health costs.” While inflation has already taken its toll on most consumer goods and services throughout the past couple years, health insurance plans have been largely spared those price hikes. That’s because health insurance costs tend to be pre-negotiated — sometimes several years in advance. With contracts expiring, we’re starting to see the effects of inflation seep into private health insurance costs. The average premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance are now about $8,500 per year for singles and $24,000 for families — both are 7% increases from 2022, according to KFF. ## What workers pay for health insurance Workers usually don’t foot the entire cost of the health insurance plan themselves. Employers often cover the lion's share of annual premiums while the remainder is deducted in portions from workers' paychecks. In 2023, out-of-pocket premiums for singles rose to $1,401 from $1,327 last year, for an increase of 5.6%. For family coverage, out-of-pocket costs rose much higher to $6,575 — up 7.7% from last year’s $6,106. For context, the health consultancy firm Mercer says premiums — both the worker and employer portion — typically increase between 3% and 4% annually, making this year’s price hike notably high. More than 150 million Americans rely on these types of private health plans for coverage. ## Health insurance premiums expected to keep rising Last year, KFF’s study — which has been ongoing for 25 years — found that [health care premiums rose only 2%](https://money.com/health-insurance-premiums-expected-rise-2023/). At the time, Altman warned that the small increase could represent the “calm before the storm.” The organization’s latest study shows his warning was prescient. The picture doesn’t look much better next year, either. Separate surveys from Mercer and Willis Towers Watson suggest that [premiums in 2024 could jump another 6%](https://money.com/health-insurance-premiums-increase-2024/) — even though inflation is largely expected to cool off further by then. Historically speaking, health insurance costs tend to outpace inflation by a large margin. Over the past decade, out-of-pocket premium costs have jumped 44% for family coverage and 40% for single coverage. 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