Moderate health care increases for 97
The relatively moderate pace of growth in employee health care costs for large employers will continue in 1997, according to the 1997 Health Care Cost Survey conducted by New York-based management consulting firm Towers Perrin.
The survey, which represents input from 148 large organizations, projects an average overall increase for active employees of 3%, compared with 4% in 1996.
"I think the things that helped keep increases moderate in the last few years still exist," notes William Falk, FSA, MAAA, FCA, a principal in the firm’s Chicago office. "These include a low level of general inflation in the economy, the continuing attention employers are paying to providing health care benefits on a cost-effective basis, and continuing expansion of managed care in many markets that still aren’t saturated. And in the back of everyone’s mind there’s still the fear of health care reform. With a lot of little things being done [to reform health care] in Congress, people can’t forget about it."
For more information on the survey, contact: David Fridling, Towers Perrin, 335 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10017-4605. Telephone: (914) 745-4179.
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