Enrollment in High-Premium Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance by State: Private Industry, 2016

This Statistical Brief reports estimates by state of the percentage of private-sector employees enrolled in employer-sponsored health insurance plans with high premiums, defined as those with annual premiums that were greater than or equal to the 90 percentile for single-coverage enrollees ($8,500) or family coverage enrollees ($24,000) in 2016. That is, of all enrollees across the U.S. within each coverage type, 10 percent had premiums at or above these amounts. These estimates were obtained using data from the 2016 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey-Insurance Component (MEPS-IC). Estimates are reported by state grouped by Census region (Northeast, Midwest, South, and West) and represent the percentages of enrollees in single and family coverage that have premiums at the national 90 percentile amount or higher. It should be noted that factors other than state of residence can affect premiums. Other factors include benefit packages that are more or less generous (through the absence or presence of deductibles and co-pays, for example), employer characteristics (such as firm size and industry), and demographic factors (such as age and health of enrollees). All estimates of the percentages of enrollees with high premiums that are discussed in the text are significantly different from 10 percent at the 0.05 level unless otherwise noted.