36 Thousand Employers Drop Healthcare — 4 million join the ranks of the uninsured

Health insurance costs for employer-based insurance rose by 30 percent from 2001 through 2005, according to a study
by the University of Minnesota’s State Health Access Data Assistance
Center. Insurance costs jumped from $8,271 to $10,778 for the average
family. Rising insurance costs drove 36,000 employers to drop insurance
coverage for employees altogether, causing 4 million people to lose
employer-sponsored insurance.

As we previously noted,
families-not employers-suffer the most when insurance costs increase.
Employers continued to pick up the same percentage-about 76 percent-of
insurance premiums between 2001 and 2005. At the same time, average
family incomes during this period grew at an anemic three percent,
suggesting that rather than give employees more money, employers gave
more money to insurance companies instead.