Health insurance inflation slows

Premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance average about $11,500 per employee this year, an average increase of 7.7 percent from a year ago, the smallest rate of growth since 2000.

But employers and employees have no reason to cheer. Premiums are still rising twice as fast as wages and overall inflation.

"To business owners and working people, a reduction in an already very high rate of growth just means you're still paying more," said Drew Altman, president and chief executive of the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Kaiser and the Health Research and Educational Trust released their yearly study of employer-sponsored health coverage Tuesday. The findings were based on a survey of 3,159 randomly selected public and private employers.

The study comes at the beginning of another "open enrollment" season, when 155 million Americans with employer-sponsored health coverage sort through their options and choose a health plan for next year.

Marianne Fazen, executive director of the Dallas-Fort Worth Business Group on Health, said Kaiser's findings are in line with what she's heard from companies that belong to her health advocacy organization.

"I don't see health care costs moderating much," she said. "People still aren't leading healthier lifestyles."