Employer contributions shifting in consumer-driven health plans, study shows

Among the roughly 4 percent of covered Americans who have consumer-driven health plans, contributions to the plans by their employers are shifting, a new study shows.

According to a study released Tuesday by the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute, workers with employee-only coverage have seen their annual employer contributions decrease, while those with family coverage have seen their annual employer contributions increase.

Researchers for the report, published in the November 2009 EBRI Notes, used findings from the 2008 and 2009 EBRI/MGA Consumer Engagement in Health Care Survey and the 2006 and 2007 EBRI/Commonwealth Fund Consumerism in Health Care Surveys. The new report examines the availability of health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs) and health savings account (HSA)-eligible plans as well as employer and individual contribution behavior, time enrolled in such plans, account balances and rollover behavior.

The EBRI report found that while the percentage of workers with an HRA or HSA plan whose employers contribute to the account has not changed statistically since 2006, the percentage of employers making contributions dropped from 67 percent in 2008 to 63 percent in 2009.

Among workers with an employer contribution, those with employee-only coverage saw their annual employer contributions increase between 2006 and 2008, but fall in 2009. Between 2006 and 2008, the percentage of workers with employee-only coverage reporting that their employer contributed $1,000 or more to the account increased from 26 percent to 37 percent. In 2009, it fell to 32 percent. The percentage of workers with an employer contribution of less than $200 increased from 3 percent to 8 percent between 2008 and 2009, the study found.

By contrast, among workers with family coverage, employer contribution levels increased in 2009. The percentage of workers receiving a contribution of $1,000 or more increased from 59 percent in 2008 to 73 percent in 2009. Nearly three-quarters of workers with family coverage in a consumer-driven health plan (CDHP) now receive an annual employer contribution of $1,000 or more.

The study also found that the share of the adult population with private health insurance enrolled in account-based health plans remains small but continues to grow. In 2009, 4 percent of the adult population with private health insurance was enrolled in an HRA or had a high-deductible plan with an HSA, up 1 percentage point from the previous year.