Premium pain: Colorado employers are taking creative steps to curb health-insurance hikes.

• Author: Melani, Debra
• Position: Attitude at altitude

Colorado employers are digging deep as they head to the health-insurance renewal table this year. Weight-loss programs and fitness competitions have entered the mix with traditional bumped-up employee premiums and co-pays, as companies seek relief from escalating costs.

Whatever measures companies choose, cost-containment remains a necessity in 2008, with industry experts reporting average premium increases of 10 percent to 12 percent in Colorado, outpacing the national average of 7 percent to 9 percent. Small businesses are facing an even harder hit.

"I have repeatedly heard from members. Many of them are seeing a 20- or 30-percent increase in their health-care premiums," said Tony Gagliardi, Colorado director for the National Federation of Independent Businesses, which boasts 7,000 members in the state.

Some companies say they will start or continue wellness programs, keep an eye on health-related legislation, stay active in coalitions and consider consumer-driven plans to rein in health-insurance costs. But one thing is more certain for 2008: Employee pocketbooks are likely to shrink.

THE BOTTOM LINE

On average, workers paid 16 percent of overall premiums for single coverage and 28 percent for family coverage, according to a 2007 Kaiser Family Foundation/Health Research and Education Trust survey released last month. However, workers in small firms (three to 199 workers) paid on average $4,236 annually toward the cost of family coverage compared with $2,831 annually for workers in large firms.

About 92 percent of Colorado businesses have fewer than 100 employees, Gagliardi said.

"I'm particularly concerned about families," said Mary Pittman, HRET president. Despite the fact that the average annual premium increase in 2007 was 6.1 percent nationally, the lowest since 1999, it was still double the rate of inflation. "And when you couple that with other costs, the rising cost of health care still haunts those workers like a dark cloud," she said.

In 2007, the average cost of a family policy exceeded $12,000 a year, said Drew Altman, president and chief executive of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit health-policy research group in Menlo Park, Calif.

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"You can buy a new economy car every year for what it costs to pay for a family health insurance policy," Altman said.

About 45 percent of businesses surveyed said they were "very" or "somewhat" likely to increase the amount employees pay for insurance premiums in...