Analyzing health insurance premium growth in the U.S. from 2000 to 2013, the Urban Institute found double-digit relative increases in average premiums in the small-group insurance market are not uncommon. That said, due to smaller increases and even occasional decreases, the average insurance premiums have only actually increased by 5.5 percent nationally since 2000.
Additional findings from the Urban Institute study include:
- In at least a third of the years since 2000, 34 states saw average annual increases of 10 percent or more for employers with fewer than 10 employees.
- In at least a third of the years since 2000, 31 states saw average annual increases of 10 percent or more for employers with 10 to 24 employees.
- In at least a third of the years since 2000, 32 states saw average annual increases of 10 percent or more for employers with 25 to 99 employees.
- Nebraska and Illinois, both states with less than 5 percent average annual growth over the period studied, experienced double-digit annual increases in about half of the years studied.
- Five states — Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, North Dakota, West Virginia — and Washington, D.C., saw annual increases in average premiums of 10 percent or more for firms of 10 to 24 employees in at least half of the years studied.
