"Early responses from a major Mercer survey still in the field show employers predicting that health benefit cost per employee will rise by 4.2% on average in 2016 after they make planned changes such as raising deductibles or switching carriers.... Employers said cost would rise by an average of 6.4% in 2016 if they made no changes. That's down from 7.1% for 2015 and is the lowest rate of underlying cost growth seen since Mercer began collecting this information in 2005, when employers said cost would rise 10% if they made no changes (after changes, the actual average increase was just 6.1%)."

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