QUOTABLE

employers, the survey said. This is in contrast to the 58% of Generation X employees and 49% of baby boomer employees who have used the benefits.

More insights from the survey include:

• Generation Z expects access to mental-health services and any historical barriers to access to be fixed. Leveraging mental-wellness resources is normalized for this generation.

• Millennials were raised to believe that mental health challenges are problematic but fixable.

• Generation X recognizes that access to mental health services can be problematic but just tries to get through it.

Employers Challenged By Increasing Costs

Inflation and a tight labor market are challenging employers to provide the best health care plans for their workers’ needs without further burdening those same workers with higher costs. On top of that, workers are demanding their employers provide them with more support for mental health and a greater work/life balance.

Those were among the key takeaways from Mercer’s 37th national survey of employer health plans. Health plan strategy reflects three major themes, Mercer said. Those themes are:

1. Inflation is driving health care costs and making affordability an even bigger concern.

2. Employers want to enhance

Employers will continue to prioritize enhancements to workplace benefits while minimizing cost-shifting to workers, the survey showed, with 64% of employers saying they plan to enhance benefits in 2024 while 48% will not raise any cost-sharing.

Younger Workers Want Mental Health Benefits

A majority of Generation Z and millennial workers say it’s “very important” for their employers to provide them with mental-wellness benefits, according to a survey by Securian Financial.

Fully 73% of Generation Z employees and 74% of millennial employees have utilized mental health benefits offered by their

38% of employees said they have not used any of their workplace mental-wellness benefits. 67% of them said they don’t believe they have serious enough issues to use the services.

Source: Securian Financial

• Baby boomers were taught to tough it out and not talk about mental health challenges.

INFLATION WANES, BUT HEALTH COSTS HEAD HIGHER

As inflation has soared to historic highs, health care costs remained relatively stable, rising about 2% annually. But it appears that medical inflation is on the way up as demand for non-COVID-19-related health services recovers and health care providers seek to make up for rising labor costs incurred during the pandemic.

Prices for hospital services began to heat up in December and increased faster in January, to an annual rate of 5.5%, according to the Federal Reserve. Consumer cost increases for nursing homes ran at a slightly higher rate of 5.7% over the past year; dental services rose even faster.

What are some of the factors driving these higher costs? Hospitals are pressing for higher payments as their long-term contracts with medical insurers come up for renewal. In addition, greater market concentration caused by chains buying out smaller hospitals is helping to push medical inflation upward.

SOURCE: Urban Institute