b' Wordw w w. w m i m u t u a l . c o mUNPACKING the 2024 KFF AnnualBy David Leo, Employer Health Benefits SurveyPresident ofWMI MutualInsurance Company& WMI TPA According to the 2024 Employer Healthcare benefits offered by employers in the hope that the analysis I am provid-Benefits Survey published by KFF , 1a non-profiting will help you compare and assess your companys benefits so you can health policy research, polling and news organization;strike a healthy balance between what your company can afford and what about 154 million Americans rely on their employers foryour employees want and need.health benefits. That figure represents a reduction of 5 million people from just two years earlier, but it is still 45.3% of the countrys population. Of small companiesExecutive Summary:(defined as enterprises with 3-199 employees), 53%The average annual premium for employer-sponsored health offer health benefits to at least some of their workers. In contrast, 98% of large companies (200+ employees) insurance coverage in 2024 was $8,951 for single coverage and offer health benefits to their employees. $25,527 for family coverage. Employers contributed an averageof $7,584 (84.7%) for single coverage and $19,276 (75.4%) ofIn addition to this significant and generous employer- the cost of family coverage.sponsored benefit, the Centers for Medicare & MedicaidIn 2024, the average annual health insurance deductible for single Services (CMS), the federal agency that runs Medicare (coverage for the elderly and disabled) and Medicaidcoverage was $1,787. Among covered workers, 48% are covered (coverage for the impoverished) recently reported thatby a PPO plan. 68.5 million people are enrolled in Medicare and 78.4For 2025, 24.2 million people signed up for Obamacare policies.million people are enrolled in Medicaid and the Nearly all Obamacare insureds (93%) receive premium subsidies Childrens Health Insurance Programs (CHIP). 2that cover a whopping 89% of the premium leaving insureds toAdditionally, there are about 24 million Americans whopay just $67/month.are covered through individual Obamacare plans and 25 million who are uninsured. 3With that background, I would like to examine the nature and scope of healthHealth Benefits by Employer Size: In general, while employer-sponsored benefit plans vary significantly from 1The 2024 KFF Employer Health Benefits Survey can be found atemployer to employer, they have some important commonalities: they are https://www.kff.org/health-costs/report/2024-employer-health-bene-fits-survey/. In accordance with the KFF citation and reprint policy, Ioffered by employers to ensure workers and their families have meaning-am using their materials with full attribution and without alteration. ful access to health care; they protect employees from the financial strife 2See, https://data.cms.gov/summary-statistics-on-benefi- or ruin that can result from catastrophic illness or injury; and they are an ciary-enrollment/medicare-and-medicaid-reports/medicare- extremely important part of the compensation package for most employees. monthly-enrollment and https://www.medicaid.gov/medicaid/program-information/medicaid-and-chip-enrollment-data/report- One of the most accurate predictors of the type and level of employer-spon-highlights#:~:text=78%2C444%2C837%20people%20were%20 sored benefits (and the amount an employer contributes to those benefits) is enrolled%20in,Map company size. The general rule is that larger companies offer more gener-3If youre wondering why the number of people who are insuredous health insurance benefits than smaller companies and usually pay a and the number of people who are uninsured exceed the number of Americans by about 10 million, I believe it is because the figureshigher portion of the premium. In the large employer group classification, I have reported include about 12 million Americans who are dual98% offered health benefits to their employees in 2024. In contrast, only enrollees in both Medicare and Medicaid.48 www.wpma.com / Summer 2025'