Health Insurance Costs

INDIANAPOLIS — A new survey says health insurance costs rise will less next year for many employers than they have in more than a decade, partly because consumers are dialing back their health care use.

Benefits consultant Mercer says the cost of employer-sponsored health benefits will rise 5.4 percent on average in 2012. That compares with an increase of more than 6 percent in 2011. It’s the smallest hike since 1997.

Many companies said in the survey that, if they made no changes, their health insurance costs would rise 7 percent next year, but the companies are working to contain workers’ expenses by taking measures like raising deductibles or co-payments and switching insurers.