Earlier Dates
It would be helpful to see how the previous 35 years looks like on the same chart. Health benefits were optional for a while and then became part of the expected package of benefits. The employers used to pay 100% of the premiums, back when the cost of insurance was significantly lower than it is today. As health insurance premiums increased, the employers began to offload some of the premium costs to the employees.
The US has one of the best medical technologies in the world but has the worst access to that care than most other countries. The US has several systems of medical access from private inurance to corporate funded insurance to self paid medical coverage to unpaid emergency room care. Hospitals are mandated to accept anyone regardless of their abillity to pay, that lack of pay is hiked up for those who can pay (like $10 per aspirin dose). As premiums rise higher than can be afforded then there would be an increase in the number of uninsured people getting "free" medical care in the emergency rooms which feed back into higher premiums. This is the hidden "tax" we pay to maintain the same level of care we had 10 and 20 years ago.
