Survey: Employer health care costs to increase 11%

Colorado employers can expect to pay an average of 10.9 percent more for health insurance in 2014 than they did this year, according to a survey released by Denver-based Lockton Cos.

This increase does not include plan changes or other cost-reducing options, according to the study.

Employers will be able to reduce this increase somewhat – to an average of 6.4 percent – by using a variety of tactics, including increasing employee premiums, increasing deductibles, increasing employee out-of-pocket expense limits and changing carriers. This is still an increase from 2013, when the average increase was 5.3 percent.

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Eighty-six percent of employers expect to pass a percentage of their health insurance premium increase on to their employees, an increase from 75 percent of employers who said the same thing in 2013.

The impact of health care reform is one of the top concerns for employers, but most respondents said that their understanding of the law is limited.

Fifty-one percent of Colorado employers surveyed said that they are only somewhat familiar with the concept of Affordable Care Act-mandated health care exchanges.

Lockton Cos. is an insurance benefits consultant . The firm surveyed 667 employers throughout Colorado to compile the survey.