The expensive growth in employers' health insurance premiums continues to slow, but it is still twice the inflation rate, the Kaiser Family Foundation reported Tuesday in its annual survey.

After years of double-digit increases, hitting 13.9 percent in 2003, premiums in 2006 went up only 7.7 percent, the third straight year of declining increases, according to Kaiser's national survey of more than 2,000 employers.

''We think it's in the 7 to 8 percentage range,'' said Howard Gruverman of Edify, a national consulting firm on healthcare headquartered in Fort Lauderdale.

Gruverman believes the rise has been slowed by employers moving to consumer-controlled programs in which employees must use more of their own money and by the trend toward wellness programs -- such as promoting Weight Watchers and stop-smoking programs.

The average family health policy now costs $11,480 a year, the survey found -- an increase of 87 percent in the past six years. Workers are now paying $2,973 of that -- $1,350 more than they paid in 2000.

In 2006, the average in-network deductible for a preferred provider organization was $473 for an individual, the survey found. The average co-pay was $11 for generics, $24 for preferred branded drugs and $38 for non-preferred drugs.

Some local employers did considerably better than the national average. At Broward County schools, benefits director Ron Weintraub reported the annual premium increases are only 3.2 percent to 4.2 percent, depending on the plan.

Weintraub said the system managed to keep premiums down by doubling the co-pay for drugs from $5 to $10 and increasing the co-pay for an emergency room visit from $10 to $75 -- a charge removed if the patient is admitted to the hospital.

All school employees have been given refrigerator magnets with the names and locations of urgent care centers, which still require only a $10 co-pay.

Ruchel Louis, owner of Successful Images in downtown Fort Lauderdale, said she remains committed to offering coverage to her seven employees even as many small businesses have dropped coverage.

Insurers insist that a certain percentage of employees sign up in order for them to offer a decent plan, and as the Seaquarium's costs have risen, many workers have gone to spouses' policies because they're cheaper, while many younger employees have dropped coverage because they feel they don't need it.

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