Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance, 1989

Health insurance premiums rose by an average of 18 percent between spring 1988 and spring 1989, with the largest increases hitting conventional plans. At the same time, preferred provider organizations (PPOs) and fee-for-service plans with preadmission certification increased their share of the market at the expense of fee-for-service plans without preadmission certification. Employees assumed an increasing share of health care costs. In this DataWatch, we report these and other findings from the 1989 Health Insurance Association of America (HIAA) survey of employer-sponsored health benefit plans. The DataWatch provides a snapshot of the state of employer-sponsored health insurance and highlights changes in group insurance during the previous year. Approximately 147 million Americans have employer-sponsored. health insurance.