A detailed study of healthcare premium costs for employers indicates that they have risen 88% since the turn-of-the-century.

Information Strategies, Inc.’s (ISI) staff has analyzed data from a variety of sources and developed a composite picture of healthcare premium costs in this decade.

The analysis shows that the average increase was 9.8% for the nine years including the current 12-month period.

While 2006 and 2007 showed the slowest increases (7.7% and 5.1%), the current year’s increases have average 8.7%.

These increases are occurring in the face of higher usage of Health Reimbursement Account (HRAs) and Health Savings Accounts (HSAs).  Because they usually have higher deductibles, these plans are normally less expensive to employers than more traditional plans.

In both cases, companies and insurers also report that utilization as a percent of premiums are below that of more traditional programs.

“We believe the burden has fallen more on smaller enterprises as large corporations have more successfully striven to reduce their healthcare premium costs,” JoAnn M. Laing, ISI’s President said. “Smaller firms have less clout with insurance companies and therefore are forced to accept higher premiums.”

“Many of them have opted to reduce benefits, increase employee contributions or even stop offering healthcare insurance,” she said.

“Our studies and surveys of smaller firms indicate that they have embraced HSAs to a greater extent as a means of reducing healthcare premiums,” Laing added.

“Many others are giving employees a stipend and having them find their own insurance,” she said.

Laing said her firm’s research also indicated that there were significant regional differences with northeast based companies being hardest hit.

Healthcare premiums are also far outpacing the rate of inflation by almost two-to-one.