Cost-shifting to employees, consolidating plan choices, emphasizing account-based plans and requiring employees to do more to receive incentives are key themes outlined in the 2011 Towers Watson Health Care Trend Survey.
“Unlike the last few years when many employees saw significant increases in co-payments, deductibles and coinsurance, 2012 looks like a year when we will start to see costs go up primarily via increased premium contributions, with a higher proportion of the increase being borne by families,” says Randall Abbott, senior health care consultant at Towers Watson. “Employers are becoming increasingly focused on raising the cost for dependents to capture the added expense and to encourage working spouses to shift to their own employer’s plan. We also expect more use of spousal surcharges when they fail to do so.”
