Employers and individuals participating in Aon Hewitt’s private health insurance exchange saw reductions in their health care costs for the 2014 plan year, the benefits consultant said Thursday.
Eighteen large employers representing more than 600,000 employees and dependents currently offer group health care coverage through Aon Hewitt’s Active Health Exchange. Those employers saw their average health care costs fall to $8,342 per employee in 2014, down from $9,098 per employee in the previous year, for an average decrease of 9.1%.
Additionally, premium rates for fully insured health care coverage purchased through Aon Hewitt’s exchange will increase by 5.3% in 2015, compared with an estimated rate increase of as much as 8.0% for self-insured coverage placed outside of the exchange.
“After three years in operation, we continue to see evidence that our fully insured, multicarrier model is fostering competition at the consumer level and encouraging individuals to become smarter about their health care choices, which have helped drive down the cost increases that employers and employees have experienced over the last decade,” Ken Sperling, Aon Hewitt’s national health exchange strategy leader, said in a statement released Thursday.
According to Aon Hewitt’s statement, all 18 employers currently participating in the Active Health Exchange have indicated that they will remain in the exchange for the 2015 plan year.
Aon Hewitt on Thursday said it is planning to add voluntary benefit plans to the menu of coverages available through its private health insurance exchange, largely due to rising employer demand for a wider variety of exchange-based benefit options.