Health Insurance Premiums and Employee Contributions in Employer-Sponsored Plans, 1999–2026

Category	Detail
Condition	Employer-sponsored health insurance premiums and worker contributions
Key Mechanisms	Premiums are the full per-person cost of coverage; worker contributions are the portion paid by workers. Estimates are weighted by the number of workers receiving health benefits and adjusted for industry and firm size.
Target Population	Workers covered by employer-sponsored health insurance at private and non-federal public employers with at least 10 employees.
Care Setting	Employer-sponsored health coverage in the United States; the survey reports estimates by firm and worker characteristics.

The Employer Health Benefits Survey has tracked employer-sponsored insurance trends annually since 1999.
The survey collects information on firms’ premiums and workers’ contributions, with estimates presented for covered workers at different types of firms.
Survey estimates are subject to uncertainty; standard errors are available for each data point and are used to assess statistical significance.
Not Sufficient Data (NSD) indicates that a subgroup has too few firms for a reliable estimate or to protect respondent confidentiality.
Family coverage is defined as coverage for a four-person family.

Use standard errors when assessing whether differences between estimates are statistically significant.
Interpret estimates for smaller or narrowly defined groups with attention to their greater uncertainty.

Differences between groups may appear large without being statistically meaningful.
Some subgroup estimates are reported as NSD when the number of firms is inadequate for reliability or confidentiality.

Not applicable; the source reports survey estimates for workers covered by employer-sponsored health insurance.

Not applicable; the source describes premiums and worker contributions, not clinical treatment or prescribing.

Consult the Survey Design and Methods section for details on survey methodology.
Use the standard errors provided with the data when comparing estimates.
Account for the source’s definitions when interpreting results: family coverage refers to a four-person family, and firm funding classification is based on the largest plan type.

Clinical Scorecard: Health Insurance Premiums and Employee Contributions in Employer-Sponsored Plans, 1999–2026