Health Insurance Premiums

Topic Outline

Topic Outline

CMS, Office of the Actuary. National Health Expenditures, 1960-2013 (December 2014). The Office of the Actuary in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services annually produces projections of health care spending for categories within the National Health Expenditure Accounts, which track health spending by source of funds (including private health insurance). The most recent estimates show “overall, premiums reached $961.7 billion in 2013 (representing a 33 percent share of national health spending), and increased 2.8 percent, slower than the 4.0 percent growth in 2012. The net cost ratio for private health insurance—the difference between premiums and benefits as a share of premiums—was 12.0 percent in 2013, the same as in 2012. Private health insurance enrollment increased 0.7 percent to 189.3 million in 2013, but was still 8.2 million lower than in 2007.
CMS, Office of the Actuary. National Health Expenditure Projections, 2014-2024 (July 2015). The latest projections begin after the latest historical year (2013) and go through 2024. Private health insurance was expected to reach $1 trillion in 2014, growing 6.4% from 2014 to 2015 and 5.4% annually through 2024.

CMS, Office of the Actuary. Sponsor Highlights (December 2014). The Office of the Actuary in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services annually produces projections of health care spending by sponsor, including households, Federal government, State and local government and private businesses. Thus, total private health insurance premiums are broken down by amounts paid by employers by type (Federal, State/local, private). The latest report (which covers 1960-2013) shows that in 2013, $471.1 in private business contributions to private health insurance, $32.4 billion in similar payments by the Federal government on behalf of Federal employees and $156 billion by state and local government for private health insurance premiums paid on behalf of state/local government workers (Table 1). For households, total premiums paid for private insurance are reported, but without a breakdown of how much represented employer-provided coverage vs. non-group health insurance.
CMS, Office of the Actuary. National Health Expenditure Projections, 2014-2024 (July 2015). The latest projections begin after the latest historical year (2013) and go through 2024 and include the same breakdowns by sponsor described immediately above.