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Article: Retiree health care costs dip: moving retired workers into managed care cited as key factor in 1% decline.
- Article from:
- Business Insurance
- Article date:
- January 19, 1998
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 Crain Communications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Employers, with a powerful assist from managed care, saw retiree health care plan costs drop in 1997.
The drop was the first since A. Foster Higgins & Co. Inc., now absorbed into benefit consultant William M. Mercer Inc., began measuring retiree health plan costs in 1993.
In 1997, retiree health care plan costs for employers with at least 500 employees declined 1% from 1996 to an average of $3,149 per retiree, according to the Mercer survey.
Costs fell sharply for health care plans offered to retirees under 65, declining 4.3% to an average of $4,985 per retiree. Costs rose a modest 1.9% over 1996 for Medicare-eligible retirees to an average of $1,910 ...