Premiums and Employee Contributions to Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance by Workforce Age and Firm Size, Private Industry, 2018

Older U.S. citizens spend more on health care than do younger U.S. citizens. This Statistical Brief examines whether employer-sponsored health insurance (ESI) premiums and employee contributions to ESI health plans in establishments with differing percentages of employees over age 50 reflect these spending differences. Additionally, differences in premiums and contributions can be related to firm size. Small firms are less able to spread the risk associated with high-cost individuals and are more likely to have no employee contributions to ESI plan to increase enrollment. This Statistical Brief reports estimates of private-sector ESI premiums and employee contributions by the percentage of the establishment’s workforce over the age of 50 and by firm size. For the purposes of this Statistical Brief, a small firm is defined as having a workforce of fewer than 50 employees and a large firm is defined as having a workforce of 50 or more employees. The estimates were obtained using private-sector data from the 2018 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey-Insurance Component (MEPS-IC). All estimates discussed are significantly different at the 0.05 level unless otherwise noted.