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The Multiemployer Health Plan Landscape: A 15-Year Look (2008-2022)

Benefit costs over the past 15-year period have increased an average of 4.3% per year, according to the new report The Multiemployer Health Plan Landscape: A 15-Year Look (2008-2022). The median benefit costs for the plans increased about 2% from 2021 to 2022, reaching $13,121 per participant per year (PPPY).

For the plan year 2022, 80% of multiemployer health plans offered dental and vision benefits in addition to health benefits; 62% of plans also included life insurance benefits. Only 3% of plans offered only medical/prescription drug (only health) benefits.

The percentage of plans covering retirees varies by industry and region. In general, the larger the number of active participants in a health plan, the more likely the plan is to also cover retirees. The percentage of multiemployer health plans covering retirees in the 2022 plan year was 74%. Most construction industry plans (81%) covered retirees while just over half of service industry plans (55%) covered retirees.

Despite shifting demographics and impacts due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which varied dramatically by industry, the total number of participants covered by multiemployer health plans remained relatively unchanged over the 15-year period, and the financial condition of many multiemployer health plans improved.

This seventh multiemployer health plan benchmarking report was produced in partnership with Horizon Actuarial Services, LLC, and the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans. The comprehensive report covers the plan demographics, benefit costs, income and plan cash flows of 1,436 multiemployer health plans—providing coverage for more than five million participants.

View the Report

The International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans and Horizon Actuarial Services, LLC, have partnered to build a database of historical information for multiemployer benefit plans in the United States. A database of multiemployer defined benefit (DB) plans was originally developed during the summer of 2014 using publicly available information from Form 5500 filings. The database of multiemployer defined contribution (DC) plans followed in the summer of 2015 as a supplement to the original DB plan database. A separate report incorporating the results from these databases is available through the International Foundation website. The database of multiemployer health plans, the subject of this report, was developed in the summer of 2017.

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