Anna Wilde Mathews, Ruth Simon, Stephanie Stamm and Elizaveta Galkina:
“If healthcare costs go up faster than the economy in general, that means there’s less money left over to go to wages,” said Gary Claxton, a senior vice president at KFF.
J.H. Berra Paving Co., in St. Louis, is struggling with this trade-off. The company is facing a 15% health-insurance rate increase this year, on top of last year’s increase, said John O’Connor, a risk manager for the company. That extra cost is likely to put a lid on wage increases for the company’s workers, O’Connor said.
The KFF survey, which includes more than 1,860 employers and was completed earlier this year, offers a detailed snapshot of workplace insurance. Nearly half the U.S. population gets health coverage through a job.