Health care costs for college and university employees have increased over the 2009-10 year, according to new survey results, and while this is a national trend, it has specific financial implications for the University of Wisconsin System.

The College and University Professional Association of Human Resources released the results of its 2010 Comprehensive Survey of College and University Benefits Program, which showed a significant increase in health care costs for university employees.

The results show the cost of health care for colleges and universities to cover employees has increased by 6.7 percent for employee-only coverage and by 7 percent for employee and family coverage.

Comparable increases from last year were 3.7 percent for employee-only and 5.7 percent for employee and family, according to CUPA-HR’s statement on the survey’s results.

The increasing health care costs are also impacting universities in the state of Wisconsin.

In developing their biannual budget request, the Board of Regents will have to account for the increase, said Board of Regents President Charles Pruitt.

Pruitt said the Regents will factor the cost of rising health care into the budget they will be submitting to the new governor next year.

“These costs are essentially part of what we are going to ask for from the government,” Pruitt said.

There is no guarantee the state will approve their budget request but, Pruitt said, the Regents are hopeful they will account for the cost.

Professor John Mullahy of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health said the cost of health care is only one part of the cost of doing business.

“If the university is not able to do anything … on its own to reduce its health care cost structure, and if it needs to more-or-less balance the books, then it either has to reduce costs elsewhere or increase its revenues,” said Mullahy in an email to The Badger Herald.

He added reducing costs might involve reducing staff salaries or operation and maintenance costs, while increasing revenues could result in increasing tuition and other fees, applying for more state aid, or increasing the amount employees contribute to their health care premiums.

The review done by CUPA-HR indicated that college and university employees have had to bear some of the extra burden caused by the increasing expense of health care for universities over the past year.

The survey also revealed premiums for employees have increased.

CUPA-HR found the median deductible for some plans along with the out-of-pocket maximum went up over the past year as well.

“It is unfortunate that many institutions have had to shift additional benefits costs to employees,” CEO and President Andy Brantley said in the press release.

Identifying a few possible sources of the drastic increase in healthcare costs is very difficult according to Mullahy. He said there are so many factors that could contribute to the increase that is impossible just to identify one or two causes.

Pruitt said that he would attribute the rising cost as part of a national trend. Universities and colleges are not the only institutions in which health care costs have risen. Other businesses and industries are facing the burden as well.

“[Nationally], we are dealing with health care costs that are becoming more and more expensive,” Pruitt said.