2017 Employer Health Benefits Survey

This annual survey of employers provides a detailed look at trends in employer-sponsored health coverage including premiums, employee contributions, cost-sharing provisions, and employer practices. The 2017 survey included more than 2,100 interviews with non-federal public and private firms. Annual premiums for employer-sponsored family health coverage reached $18,764 this year, up 3% from last year, with workers on average paying $5,714 towards the cost of their coverage, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation/Health Research & Education Trust 2017 Employer Health Benefits Survey. The 2017 survey includes information on the use of incentives for employer wellness programs, plan cost sharing, and firm offer rates. Survey results are released in a variety of ways, including a full report with downloadable tables on a variety of topics, summary of findings, and an article published in the journal Health Affairs.

News release

• A news release announcing the publication of the 2017 Employer Health Benefits Survey is available here.

summary of findings

• The Summary of Findings provides an overview of the 2017 survey results and is available under the Summary of Findings.

full report

• The complete Employer Health Benefits Survey Report includes over 200 exhibits and is available under the Report The “Report” tab contains 14 separate sections. Users can view each section separately or download the section exhibits from the right side of the respective section page.

health affairs

• The peer-reviewed journal Health Affairs has published an article with key findings from the 2017 survey: Health Benefits In 2017: Stable Coverage, Workers Faced Considerable Variation in Costs.

web briefing

• On Tuesday, September 19, 2017, the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Educational Trust (HRET) held a reporters-only web briefing to release the 2017 Employer Health Benefits Survey.

interactive graphic

• This graphing tool allows users to look at changes in premiums and worker contributions for covered workers at different types of firms over time: Premiums and Worker Contributions Among Workers Covered by Employer-Sponsored Coverage, 1999-2017.

key exhibits-chartpack

• Over twenty overview slides from the 2017 Employer Health Benefits Survey are available as a slideshow or PDF.

additional resources

• Standard errors for selected estimates are available in the Technical Supplement here.
• Employer Health Benefits Surveys from 1998-2016 are available here. Please note that historic survey reports have not been revised with methodological changes.
• Researchers may request a public use dataset by going to Contact Us and choosing “TOPIC: Health Costs.”

Researchers at the Kaiser Family Foundation, NORC at the University of Chicago, and Health Research & Educational Trust designed and analyzed the survey.