September 11, 2007 -- The 2007 Survey of Employer Health Benefits, released today by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Educational Trust, found that premiums rose 6.1 percent in 2007, faster than the rate of inflation. The study's findings were also published in the journal Health Affairs.

NORC senior fellow Jon Gabel, co-author of the report, was quoted widely in the national press about the report.  Heidi Whitmore, NORC research scientist, also contributed to the report.

Read the official press release and download the full survey.

Gabel was quoted in an original story by Reuters news service that was published by many other news outlets. The San Francisco Chronicle, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Hartford Courant, and Business Insurance also published original stories about the study's findings on September 12, 2007. In one story, Gabel noted that "We are not falling off of a cliff, but we are witnessing a slow but certain long-term erosion of our employer-based system." In another, Gabel pointed out that the average annual cost of family health care coverage is now roughly equal to the annual income of a worker earning the new federal minimum wage of $5.85.