Workers Are Paying More Upfront for Health Care

By Consumers for Quality Care, on March 23, 2022

As employers look for ways to offset the rising cost of health care premiums, they are doing so on the backs of employees, according to Axios. Increasingly, workers are finding themselves paying for higher deductibles, copays, and coinsurance.

The average single worker’s deductible has tripled since 2006, and 30 percent of all companies now have annual deductibles of $2,000 or more, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. While federal law now outlaws most types of surprise medical bills, workers could still face huge and unexpected costs depending on their network of hospitals and doctors.

Employees who face the highest out-of-pocket medical costs are those who work in industries that often don’t offer insurance, like food service, retail, and hospitality. Those industries disproportionately employ Black and Hispanic workers, and those workers are most vulnerable to being exposed to COVID-19.

No consumer should have to deal with burdensome out-of-pocket costs for their health care, and CQC urgers lawmakers to take swift action on these rising costs.