Florida employers face 4.7% rise in health insurance costs

November 25 01:00 2015 by ushadmin

A study from Mercer Health & Benefits LLC shows that Florida employers are expecting to pay more for health care coverage in 2016.

Specifically, 99 large and small companies in Florida responded to a Mercer survey, saying a 4.7 percent increase in cost per individual is expected in 2016, after adjustments are made to their health coverage plans. This is slightly lower than the increase Florida companies saw at the beginning of 2015, which was 5.7 percent, said Matthew Snook, a partner at Mercer.

Some Florida employers are expecting to pay more for health care coverage in 2016.

Nationally, employers are expecting an average cost increase per individual health coverage plan of 4.3 percent, according to the survey findings.

“Florida is very typical of the country, on average,” Snook said.

Findings from the survey also show 36 percent of companies in Florida are on track to be hit with the excise tax in 2018. The excise tax, also know as the “Cadillac tax,” is a 40 percent tax beginning in 2018 on health care plans that exceed $10,200 worth of benefits for an individual, or $27,500 for families. This is most likely to impact large employers, a recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey found, because they often offer flexible spending accounts (FSAs) as an employee benefit. FSAs are accounts that employees can put pre-tax dollars into to pay for out-of-pocket health care costs…