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Home / Washington Business - March 2006 / Chair's Corner: Keeping Your People Healthy |
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Chair's Corner: Keeping Your People Healthy |
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Written On: March 2006 |
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Written By: by Creigh H. Agnew - Chair, Board of Directors |
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It's all the buzz. Rising health insurance costs. In the past few years, double-digit premium increases have greeted employers' health insurance benefits. As a result, various polls show Americans are more worried about health care costs than about losing their jobs or paying for rent and mortgages.
Research has shown that a steady, multi-year acceleration in the growth rate of underlying health care costs is largely to blame for increases in private health insurance premiums. In addition, while growth in prescription drug costs was a major component of the acceleration in health care cost growth in the late 1990s, recent increases in spending on hospital care have accounted for the largest portion of cost growth.
Today, most workers with employer-sponsored health coverage are required to share the costs of their health insurance premiums and benefits with their employers. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation/Health Research and Educa-tional Trust, in 2004 more than three-quarters of workers contributed toward their monthly premiums (93 percent for family coverage and 79 percent for single coverage). And, higher percentages of workers contributed to cost sharing for office visits (97 percent), and tiered cost sharing for prescription drugs (89 percent).
We all have questions about health care costs and why they continue to rise. The answers are complicated and too complex to explain in a single issue of Washington Business, let alone in this column. However, two obvious reasons for rising costs are that we're all using more health care services than ever before and that these services are carrying heftier price tags.
At my company, rising health care costs are a significant concern for the company, employees, retirees and their families. During the past few years, costs to Weyerhaeuser have increased an average 12 percent a year, which is a smaller increase than many other employers have had to bear.
We're all aware that escalating health care costs are straining the state's budget. The Legislature has heard from AWB and employers for years about the need to control the rising costs of health care. Unfortunately, our lawmakers have been slow to respond to ideas that allow flexibility in designing plans that work for individual companies at costs they can afford; or provide for more competition in the insurance market. So what is an employer to do?
I cannot speak for other businesses, but here at Weyerhaeuser we have created a new benefits strategy called "Share the Future." It's an innovative strategy that focuses on encouraging employees to stay healthy, protects employees against catastrophic health care costs, and manages benefit costs efficiently.
Weyerhaeuser's Share the Future strategy has brought to the company changes necessary to maintain competitive and affordable health care benefits for employees and retirees. We designed new medical plans, enhanced the network of available providers, established a company-wide health management program and increased emphasis on health care education.
Generally, we've been successful at managing health care spending for both the company and employees compared to national trends. We have invested in the health of our employees, retirees and their families. We are helping them become well-educated consumers of health care services. Not only does our strategy contain costs, but more importantly, we hope it will have a positive impact on our employee's quality of life.
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