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Report: Health Insurance Costs Rising For Those With Employer-Sponsored Plans

Health insurance costs are becoming less affordable for those with employer-sponsored plans, according to a new report from the Commonwealth Fund.Senior scientist David Radley says over the past decade, employee contributions to deductibles and premiums have increased 11.5% across the U.S. And, he says, Maine's costs are even higher.

"In Maine, those combined costs account for almost 12 percent of median income," Radley says.

And those insurance costs have outpaced growth in median income during that time, says Radley. The average out-of-pocket cost for employer-sponsored health plans in Maine is more than $7,800 per year. 

Radley says those costs have been taking a larger bite out of household budgets for the past decade. "The annual rate of growth in employee premium contributions and in deductibles is still higher than the annual rate of growth in wages," he says.