THE WORKPLACE

U.S. workers who get health insurance through their employer can expect to shoulder more of the growing financial burden again next year.

Many employees are reviewing their 2009 medical options during their company’s annual “open enrollment” period.

Most will be contributing more to cover a larger premium, paying greater out-of-pocket costs and directing more of their own care. A growing number may even be switching to cheaper, “catastrophic” coverage.

“Increasingly, employees are willing to accept decreased benefits and therefore decreased contributions,” said Fritz Hewelt, a vice president and employee-benefits expert with Aon Consulting Worldwide.

For many workers, that means letting go of the conventional health- maintenance organizations or preferred-provider plans that allow them almost unlimited access to doctors, with small co-payments for office visits and prescriptions.

This year, about 46 percent of all employers with medical coverage offered some sort of health savings account plan, said Ken Watson, a Tampa, Fla.-based senior consultant for Towers Perrin. Next year, according to preliminary surveys, more than 50 percent of companies are likely to include such a plan.

The savings accounts, in particular, are part of a larger bid by some U.S. employers to shave their health insurance costs.

Nationwide, Hewelt expects costs next year to rise 6.4 percent, from $8,331 for the average employee this year to $8,863 in 2009. But that’s also up sharply from $4,914 per employee as recently as 2002.

By combining an HSA with a high-deductible health policy, employers can reduce their insurance premiums and give themselves another way of sharing the cost of medical care with their work forces.

Employees have much larger out-of-pocket costs upfront with high-deductible plans, but those expenses can be covered by funds that they or their employer – or both – deposit in their tax-friendly health savings accounts.

Orlando Sentinel