Over the past year the International Foundation has conducted research surveys on a variety of trending health-related benefits topics including workplace wellness, the impact of ACA and domestic partner benefits. These trends have not reduced the importance of the benefit basics—health and dental plans. Let’s take a closer look at these tried-and-true benefits, using health and dental benefits benchmarking data from our Employee Benefits Survey to answer some simple questions such as: Who’s covered? What’s offered? Who pays?
Nearly all organizations participating in the survey (98%) offer a health care plan, and 93% report their workers are satisfied with their health benefits. Other common health-related benefit offerings include: prescription drug benefits, dental plans, chiropractic coverage, mental health benefits, vision benefits, orthodontia coverage and retiree health care benefits.
Across all sectors, PPOs are the most common type of health care plans offered. Nearly one-third of all organizations offer HMOs and a similar portion offer HDHPs with HSAs. HMOs are most common among public employers, while HDHPs are most common in the corporate sector. Point-of-service plans, HDHPs with HRAs, and traditional indemnity/fee-for-service plans are less common types of plan offerings. Additionally, about two-thirds of all organizations offer some type of flexible benefit arrangement, most commonly, health care FSAs.
The most common dependent groups covered by health plans at the time of the survey include: biological children, adopted children, spouses, stepchildren, wards, foster children and disabled adult dependents. See Domestic Partner Benefits After the Supreme Court Decision: 2015 Survey Results for more recent data on domestic partner benefit offerings.
Roughly two-thirds of organizations completely or partially self-funded their health care plans, while about one-third are fully-insured. The average percentage of premium paid by employees for single health coverage is 15% and 21% for family health coverage. The average in-network deductible for single health coverage is $695 and $1615 for family health coverage. The rise in HDHPs with HSAs and an increase in the average health plan deductible were clear trends that stood out when comparing previous versions of this survey.
Similar to health care, the most common dental plan type offered by about seven in ten organizations is a PPO. Dental HMOs are offered by one-quarter of all organizations, and 14% offer traditional indemnity/fee-for-service dental plans. The average percentage of premium paid by employees for single dental coverage is 24% and 29% for family dental coverage. The average in-network deductible for single dental coverage is $35 and $75 for family dental coverage.
Neil Mrkvicka
Senior Research Analyst at the International Foundation
