2014 Employer Health Benefits Survey

The 2015 Employer Health Benefits Survey was released September 22, 2015.

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 opinions.  The 2014 survey included almost three thousand interviews with non-federal public and private firms.

Annual premiums for employer-sponsored family health coverage reached $16,834 this year, up 3 percent from last year, with workers on average paying $4,823 towards the cost of their coverage, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation/Health Research & Educational Trust (HRET) 2014 Employer Health Benefits Survey.  Survey results are released here in a variety of ways, including a full report with downloadable tables, summary of findings, and an article published in the journal Health Affairs.

News Release

• A news release announcing the publication of the 2014 Employer Health Benefits Survey is available here.

Summary of Findings

• The Summary of Findings provides an overview of the 2014 survey results and is available under the Summary of Findings tab or as a pdf file in the “Download” box to the right.

Full Report

• The complete Employer Health Benefits Survey Report includes over 200 exhibits and is available under the Report tab or as a pdf file in the “Download” box to the right. The “Report” tab contains 14 separate sections. Users can also download each section separately from the “Download” box or download the complete set of section exhibits from the bottom of the respective section page.

Health Affairs

• The peer-reviewed journal Health Affairs has published an article with key findings from the 2014 survey: Health Benefits in 2014: Stability In Premiums And Coverage For Employer-Sponsored Plans.

Web Briefing

• On Wednesday, September 10, 2014, the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Educational Trust (HRET) held a reporters-only web briefing to release the 2014 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, 1999-2014.

Key Exhibits – Chartpack

• Over twenty overview slides from the 2014 Employer Health Benefits Survey are available as a slideshow or as pdf.

Additional Resources

• Standard errors for selected estimates are available in the Technical Supplement here.
• Employer Health Benefits Surveys from 1998-2013 are available here. Please note that historic survey reports have not been revised with methodological changes.
• Researchers may request for 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.