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🌅 Employers Expect Health Insurance Costs to Rise

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Sunrise Stat
October 02, 2025

6.5% - How much U.S. businesses expect employee health benefit costs to rise in 2026.

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WHAT TO KNOW

  • Employers in the U.S. expect the cost of providing health benefits for their employees to rise by 6.5% in 2026—the largest increase in 15 years—even after accounting for potential cuts to coverage or other cost-saving measures passed onto employees. Without any cost-saving measures, businesses expect to pay 9% more on average.

WHY IT MATTERS

  • The increase will be a change for employees, who’ve been shielded from price increases in recent years. Last year, while coverage for a family of four increased to just over $25,500, the share paid by employees remained relatively stable at around $6,300.

CONNECT THE DOTS

  • Employees aren’t the only ones facing higher health insurance costs. The more than 20 million Americans who get subsidized coverage through the federal government’s ACA Marketplace are facing a 114% increase in premium payments next year as crucial tax credits expire at the end of 2025, absent Congressional action.