Large employers say they expect premium increases to hold steady for 2017, according to survey results released this month.
What does steady mean when it comes to health care costs?
Up 6 percent.
The results come from the National Business Group on Health, a nonprofit association of more than 400 large employers. The report on survey results says the rate of increase is holding steady despite big jumps in the cost of specialty pharmaceuticals.
The report also projects that employee's won't see big increases in their share of health plan costs.
In a statement, Brian Marcotte, the president and CEO of the National Business Group on Health, notes the painful, perennial contrast between health care cost inflation and the rest of the economy.
"Costs are still running at more than twice the rate of inflation and general wage increases, thereby threatening affordability," Marcotte said. "These cost increases, while stable, are both unsustainable and unacceptable"
The survey is based on responses from 133 large employers in the U.S. that offer coverage to more than 15 million Americans.
Nearly one third of respondents said specialty pharmaceutical costs was the highest driver of health costs, up from just 6 percent who cited the medications as the top cost driver in 2014.
