Workers at small firms pay $8,334 on average per year for family health insurance, according to the most recent KFF employer health benefit survey. About a quarter of such workers face costs of $12,000 or more per year.
Small firms – defined as those that employ fewer than 200 people – pay lower wages on average than large firms, and typically require employees to pay a larger percentage of their health care costs. The combination of lower pay and higher healthcare costs means that many workers struggle to purchase coverage.
“The bottom line,” KFF’s Drew Altman says, is that for “many of the almost 50 million people working for the 3.2 million smaller companies in America, family coverage is no longer affordable.”
