{"id":25184,"date":"2025-11-20T08:28:34","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T13:28:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/?p=25184"},"modified":"2025-11-20T08:28:35","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T13:28:35","slug":"employers-could-grapple-with-18-5k-in-health-insurance-costs-per-person-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/?p=25184","title":{"rendered":"Employers could grapple with +$18.5K in health insurance costs per person in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>(By: Elizabeth Casolo for <em>Becker&#8217;s Hospital Review<\/em>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Employers can expect a 6.7% increase in total health benefit costs in 2026 \u2014 the steepest in 15 years \u2014 according to the 2025 National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans from consulting firm Mercer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The cost per employee is slated to reach over $18,500, up from $17,496 this year. Mercer partially attributed the jump going into 2025 \u2014 which surpassed the rate of inflation and wage growth \u2014 to higher prescription drug costs. These costs saw a 9.4% increase, after rebates, for employers with at least 500 workers, while specialty drug costs per employee rose 8.9%.  Continue reading <a href=\"https:\/\/www.beckerspayer.com\/research-analysis\/employers-could-grapple-with-18-5k-in-health-insurance-costs-per-person\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.beckerspayer.com\/research-analysis\/employers-could-grapple-with-18-5k-in-health-insurance-costs-per-person\/\">here&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"100\" class=\"wp-image-7924\" style=\"width: 150px;\" src=\"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/dreamstime_m_33628218health-care-medical.jpg\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/dreamstime_m_33628218health-care-medical.jpg 2121w, https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/dreamstime_m_33628218health-care-medical-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/dreamstime_m_33628218health-care-medical-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/dreamstime_m_33628218health-care-medical-1024x683.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\"><strong>Notice: <\/strong>The link provided above connects readers to the full content of the posted article. The URL (internet address) for this link is valid on the posted date; medicarereport.org cannot guarantee the duration of the link\u2019s validity. Also, the opinions expressed in these postings are the viewpoints of the original source and are not explicitly endorsed by AMAC, Inc.; the AMAC Foundation, Inc.; or medicarereport.org.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(By: Elizabeth Casolo for Becker&#8217;s Hospital Review) Employers can expect a 6.7% increase in total health benefit costs in 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,21,200],"tags":[120,385,238],"class_list":["post-25184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-employer-healthcare","category-health-care-finance","category-health-insurance","tag-employer-health-insurance","tag-healthcare-costs","tag-healthcare-finance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25184"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25185,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25184\/revisions\/25185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}