Recent years have seen Utahns’ monthly premiums and deductibles on their employer-backed insurance plans climb dramatically, a new report says.
Premiums leapt by at least 30 percent from 2006 to 2016, while at the same time many Utah employers shifted to plans with high deductibles — coverage that requires workers to pay more of their medical costs out of pocket when they get sick.
As a result Utah families “are really getting hit from both sides of the health insurance plan,” said Sam Brucker, a research analyst with the Utah Foundation, which compiled the study.
Foundation researchers sought to track how much Utah residents are spending on health coverage in recent years and what may be driving up costs, including fast-rising drug prices.