Medical Costs for Family of Four Up $1,162 from 2008 to 2009

Employee Share of Medical Costs Rose by 14.7%

Milliman Inc. is a large actuarial and consulting firm which has been in business since 1947.  Its Milliman Medical Index (MMI) measures measures average annual medical spending for a typical American family of four covered by an employer-sponsored preferred provider organization (PPO) program.  The most recent MMI can be found in full here.

2009′s MMI Highlights Include:

• The total 2009 medical cost for a typical American family of four is $16,771, compared with the 2008 figure of $15,609. This is a 7.4% increase from 2008 to 2009.
• The employee’s share of medical costs increased 14.7% from 2008.
• This is the third straight year of decreasing cost trends. Even so, the $1,162 increase is the highest since the 2006 increase of $1,169, when cost trends were at 9.6%.
• Every category of costs except inpatient and outpatient facility care experienced lower cost trends than last year.