Employers in Kansas and elsewhere are wrestling with the health care industry — and losing

Premiums for health plans through private-sector jobs in Kansas shot up nearly 40% from 2010 to 2020. That’s twice as fast as general inflation.
One Topeka engineering firm does what it can to fight the ballooning cost of health care for its workers.

Bartlett & West — owned by its 350 employees across seven states — is trying a slew of approaches.

It has a wellness program. It tries to make preventive care easy to get. It pays its employees’ medical bills itself, rather than buying coverage from insurance companies.

And yet, year after year, its premiums climb.

“My fear is that the company will not be able to continue to absorb as much of that cost,” Bartlett & West’s head of human resources, Kim Walker, said at a forum this month on employers and health care, hosted by the Kansas Health Institute.