Health Care Cost Sharing Increasingly Common for California Employers

Recent surveys commissioned by the California HealthCare Foundation indicate that increasing employee cost sharing is now the most common strategy used by California companies to get a handle on health care costs. Although most employers report that the decision does help ease the pain of health care costs, more than 75 percent say that cost sharing causes consumers to forgo needed medical care, and over 40 percent believe that cost sharing reduces workers’ productivity. The surveys also found that employers will increase premium contributions, change health insurance carriers and reduce benefits to control costs, although they are less likely to choose those options now than in previous years.