California illin’

In California, and the U.S. in general, employer-based health care is still the leading source of coverage for most people with insurance. But that is changing. According to the California Healthcare Foundation’s 2011 Health Benefits Survey, in the last two years, the proportion of California employers offering coverage dropped from 73 percent to 63 percent. That’s on top of the percentage of employees paying deductibles of $1,000 or more doubling since 2006, and Californians having higher premiums and more total share of cost than the national average. And, looking at the graph below, the trend of premium costs increasing at a much higher rate than inflation doesn’t seem to be slowing.

Cumulative percent of increase in premiums for family health coverage in California from 2002-2011 as compared to inflation.