AHIP: Employers now covering more of workers’ health premiums

Employers in the five highest-population states have been paying a bigger share of workers’ health insurance premiums.

America’s Health Insurance Plans, a group for health insurers, has included data on employers’ health premium support in its latest state health coverage data report.

AHIP analysts have used data from the federal government and other sources to provide snapshots of the health insurance market for each state and the District of Columbia.

See also: Record-breaking healthcare premiums ‘not a great’ milestone

For each state, AHIP provides the average percentage of the premium for coverage for a single employee paid by the state’s employers.

In California, the state with the highest population, that percentage increased to 83% in the data for the latest year available, up from 81% in the 2024 report.

Here’s what happened to the comparable percentages for the four other states that rank in the top five in terms of population:

• Texas: 80%. (Up from 77%.)
• Florida: 82%. (Up from 77%.)
• New York: 80%. (Up from 76%.)
• Pennsylvania: 81%. (Up from 78%.)

What it means: Overall, employers’ health benefits programs may be becoming more generous.

The AHIP state health insurance market reports: For AHIP, providing the report is a way to show members of Congress and other health policymakers how important the health insurance industry is to each state’s economy.

In California, for example, health plans employ 170,700 people, and those people earn an average of $126,630.

Employers in closely related sectors have about 122,230 employees, and those employees earn an average of $93,881.

The health insurance sector generates more than $33 billion in payroll spending in California each year, according to the AHIP report.

This article was originally published on BenefitsPRO, a sister site of HR Executive. For more content like this delivered to your inbox, sign up for BenefitsPRO newsletters here.