Costs of Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance for State and Local Governments, by Census Division, 2011

The cost of the employer-sponsored health insurance offered by state and local governments to their employees varies across different geographic areas of the U.S. In addition, state and local government employers differ from their private sector counterparts within the same geographic area regarding the cost of their health insurance coverage. Using estimates from the Insurance Component of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey for 2011, this Statistical Brief discusses differences in state and local governments' employer-sponsored insurance costs across the nine census divisions—New England, Middle Atlantic, East North Central, West North Central, South Atlantic, East South Central, West South Central, Mountain, and Pacific. Within each census division, it also compares costs for state and local government employees to that for private sector employees. The Brief examines three general types of health insurance coverage—single coverage (employee only), employee-plus-one coverage (employee and one family member), and family coverage (employee plus at least one other family member). Both average annual premiums and employee contributions toward the premium are discussed. Only those differences that are statistically significant at the 0.05 significance level are discussed. See the "Definitions" section for a list of states included in each census division.