Print edition: 
The cost of health benefits increased 5.5 percent in 2009, the lowest increase in a decade, according to Mercer's 2009 National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans, released Wednesday.
The report said the increase in Kansas was 4.6 percent, with an average employee cost of $7,990.
The Kansas increase was the second lowest of any state, the report said, and costs in Kansas remain among the lowest 10 states.
Kansas employers estimated their costs would increase by 11.1 percent in 2010 without changes to their health benefit plans and said they hope to hold them to 7.8 percent by changing plans or vendors. That would be the highest expected increase in the country, Mercer said.
Nationally, the average per-employee cost of health benefits in 2009 was $8,945, Mercer said.
The 5.5 percent increase followed four years of increases of just more than 6 percent. It's down from earlier years of double-digit increases but still outpaces inflation, the report said.
The National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans is conducted annually by Mercer, a provider of consulting, outsourcing and investment services.
The survey included more than 2,900 employers, 35 of them in Kansas.
Nationally, employers who responded to the survey predicted that their medical plan costs would rise by about 9 percent in 2010 if they didn't change their current plans. They hope to hold that to 6 percent by changing plan design or changing vendors.
Among the Kansas employers, 29 percent said they will shift more cost to their employees next year, by raising deductibles, co-pays and out-of-pocket maximums; 37 percent plan to increase employees' share of the premium contribution; and 9 percent will increase cost-sharing some other way.
Nationally, Mercer said, small employers were more likely to move employees into low-cost consumer-directed health plans and raise deductibles; large employers are increasingly turning to employee wellness programs to help curb increases.
Among the Kansas employers, preferred provider organizations and point-of-service plans continue to dominate, with 64 percent of employees covered that way. Seventeen percent were in HMOs, 7 percent in consumer-directed health plans and 12 percent in traditional indemnity plans.
