Rising costs will have Loyola employees paying 30 percent more each month for their health care coverage in the upcoming year.

This results in Loyola employees paying 31.5 percent more out-of-pocket on their monthly premiums. According to Ross Matthews, director of Human Resources, Loyola will face a 12.4 percent increase on the total price of health care premiums, which will be split evenly between Loyola and its employees. Under the current system, Loyola pays about 80 percent of the total cost for employees’ premiums.

Matthews said Loyola completely covered the 22 percent rise in premiums in 2009, the last time premiums increased.

Despite the increase, Gary Catalinotto, a carpenter for Physical Plant, spoke favorably of Loyola’s health plan.

“It’s a very reasonable rate compared to what I used to pay,” he said.

The Kaiser Family Foundation’s annual Employee Health Benefits Survey assesses trends in employer-sponsored health coverage. The most recent survey shows the total cost of family premiums has more than doubled since 2001. The amount workers pay toward those premiums has increased by 131 percent over the same time, according to the survey.

Catalinotto said that the rising cost was important, but he was resigned to health care’s economic realities.

“You don’t really have a choice,” he said.

Karl Gommel can be reached at [email protected]