A national survey of employer-sponsored health plans has foundthat total health benefit costs rose by 6.1 percent in 2007, thesame pace as last year, to an average of $7,983 per employee.

The survey was performed by Mercer consulting, a part of Marsh& McLennan, which also owns the insurance brokerage Marsh.

Their study follows a survey by the Council of Insurance Agents& Brokers of insurance brokers released last week that saidsmall accounts of 50 or less employees experienced the sharpestincreases since a report done in May (see NU Online Nov. 14).

Mercer said a positive finding is that cost increases have heldsteady for three years after spiking to nearly 15 percent in 2002,and are likely to slow a bit further in 2008, to 5.7 percent.

On the minus side, Mercer continued, is that the figure is stillmore than twice the rate of inflation. Health cost growth isoutpacing wages and material costs and eroding businessprofitability.

The survey shows that small employers are dropping their plans.Among employers with fewer than 200 employees, health coverageprevalence fell from 63 percent to 61 percent in 2007, down from 66percent five years ago.

The survey also found that 80 percent of large employers usehealth management programs as a way to control costs and improveproductivity, while 52 percent are actively promoting employeeconsumerism.

The majority of employers using these strategies say they havebeen successful, 63 percent for health management and 62 percentfor consumerism. Large employers experienced a somewhat loweraverage cost increase than small employers in 2007--5.1 percentcompared with 6.6 percent.

A copy of the survey is available at Mercer's Web site atwww.mercer.com/ushealthplansurvey.