INSURANCE - Workers paying more for coverage - Employees are taking on more of the rising cost of job-sponsored healthcare plans.

The cost of employer-sponsored health insurance continues to outstrip inflation and wages, rising 6.1% this year, according to a closely watched annual report. And workers are bearing more of the burden.

The rate of increase is slower than in previous years, but since 2000, the share paid by the average U.S. worker has doubled. Moreover, the average total cost of healthcare premiums for a family of four, including the share paid by employers, now exceeds the amount a minimum wage worker earns in a year.

The slowdown in premium increases continues a four-year trend, according to the employer survey released Tuesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust. The slowing represents a rare bit of good news in an otherwise "fraying" employer-based healthcare system, said Drew Altman, president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit research group in Menlo Park, Calif., that produced the report.

"Because consumers are paying more of the costs out of their own pocket, this is more a story about costs shifting than costs really going down," he said.

Melnick pointed out that federal estimates see overall healthcare costs rising about 7% this year, meaning employees are picking up the difference between that figure and the rise in the cost of healthcare premiums.

The average annual premium was $12,106 this year for family coverage and $4,479 for single coverage, according to the Kaiser study, with workers contributing $3,281 and $694 of those totals, respectively. Those worker contributions are up by 10% and 11% over the amounts reported last year.

Premiums for family coverage have increased 78% since 2001, while wages have risen 19% and the cost of living has climbed 17%.

In addition to rising premium costs and plan deductibles, 95% of covered workers are now responsible for copayments and shared costs for hospital stays, outpatient surgeries and out-of-plan services.

Most Americans are feeling the pressure, but lower-paid and middle-class workers are experiencing a disproportionate pinch.

Increases in health insurance premiums and out-of-pocket expenses are often the same across the board no matter how much an employee makes, so already-strapped workers are struggling harder to make ends meet.