Health Insurance Trends for 2009

As 2008 draws to a bloody close, the new year holds changes to how employers will be offering health care benefits to their employees. Presently there are 158 million employees receiving health care benefits from their employers. After polling thousands of employers and human resource managers Nationwide, here is how they see the future of health care.

• Employees who receive health care benefits can expect more cost sharing in the form of higher co-pays and more out-of-pocket expenses and higher premiums.
• Small employers with 2-10 employees will increasingly drop group sponsored health care and require employees to purchase individual plans.
• Mini-med plans and Medium med plans will see large membership gains as cash strapped employers look for ways to keep premium costs under control.
• Voluntary coverage such as cancer coverage, serious illness policies, and short term disability provided by companies such as AFLAC and Colonial Life will become increasingly popular with employees.