Premiums and Employee Contributions for Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance: Private versus Public Sector, 2013

Employer-sponsored health insurance for current employees is one of the primary sources of health insurance coverage in the United States. According to data from the Insurance Component of the 2013 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS-IC), approximately 115.7 million of the 133.0 million employees in the United States worked where the employer offered health insurance. U.S. civilian employees include those employed in the private sector and in the public sector (State and local, but not federal employees). Of those employees who worked where health insurance was offered, approximately 34.8 million were enrolled in single coverage, 13.0 million were enrolled in employee-plus-one coverage, and 21.4 million were enrolled in family coverage (data not shown). This Statistical Brief presents estimates, using 2013 MEPS-IC data, of average premiums and employee contributions for single, employee-plus-one, and family coverage. Estimates are for public and private sector employees who worked for entities that offered health insurance, and were enrolled in offered health insurance plans. Estimates by census geographic division are also presented for average premiums and employee contributions for single and family coverage for enrollees in both the public and private sectors. Only comparisons that had a statistically significant difference at the 0.05 percent significance level are noted in the text.