Wisconsin Health Insurance Costs 22% Higher than National Average

New Employer Survey Shows Need for Congress to Enact
Meaningful Health Care Reform this Year

Milwaukee, WI -  Wisconsin health insurance continues to be significantly more costly than the national average. According to the annual Mercer survey, employers and workers paid on average 22% more for health insurance in Wisconsin than the national average.

This finding is consistent with 7 years of research that has found Wisconsin health insurance costs to be higher than most states. According to Mercer, the average group health policy costs $10,088 per employee in Wisconsin. The national average is $8,945 per employee. (This number is a combination of single and family policies).

The survey also found that Wisconsin health insurance costs are rising at a faster rate than nationally. In Wisconsin, insurance costs increased 6.8% for the year, while they increased 5.5% nationally. Both of these increases are very high, considering that the overall inflation rate has been slightly negative this year.

“Wisconsin’s higher than average health insurance costs are another strong reason that we need Congress to enact meaningful health care reform this year,” said Robert Kraig, Executive Director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin. “Skyrocketing health insurance costs are a crushing burden on working families, and a drag on the Wisconsin economies capacity to add desperately needed new jobs.”

Posted @ 6:46 p.m.