And as we’ve pointed out, that market has seen much higher average premium increases than the employer-sponsored market. The average increase for the second lowest-cost silver plan on HealthCare.gov — which encompassed 38 states over the past two years — was 25 percent from 2016 to 2017; it was 7.2 percent the year before. The average increase for an employer-provided family plan in 2016, meanwhile, was 3 percent — marking the fifth straight year of 3 percent or 4 percent premium growth.
When Sen. Ted Cruz recently pointed to the increase in employer-sponsored premiums under the ACA as evidence of how it has “driven up the cost of health care,” we
said that was misleading, since the growth has been at such low rates that the Obama administration touted it as a positive. (That was misleading, too. Experts have said the economy was the main reason, not the ACA.)
Still, the slow rate of growth was good news for premiums: The total average family plan cost increased by 43 percent from 2008 to 2016, but it went up more than double that rate — 97 percent — from 2000 to 2008.
There has been some impact on premiums of employer-sponsored plans because of the health care law, however.