Key facts
- Employees are paying more for health coverage, especially those working for small businesses.
- Companies are implementing more hurdles for care, such as approval processes for expensive drugs.
- Employers cite hospital care, cancer therapies, and obesity medications as drivers of cost increases.
Working families in the United States are facing significantly higher health insurance costs in 2026, with premiums and deductibles climbing. This trend is forcing many individuals to postpone necessary medical treatments, doctor's visits, or prescription refills. The number of uninsured Americans has also increased, with the share of working-age adults without coverage rising to 11.2% in 2026 from 8.9% in 2024, according to surveys from KFF and the Commonwealth Fund.
The average yearly cost for employees to cover their family health insurance has reached $7,471, a 9% increase from the previous year, while the total cost of a family plan, including employer contributions, now stands at $28,303. The average deductible for workers is nearing $2,000. Employees of small businesses are particularly hard-hit, paying an average of $9,687 annually for coverage, with over a third facing deductibles of $3,000 or more.
Employers are attempting to mitigate rising costs by shifting more expenses to their workforces, increasing deductibles, and implementing more restrictive approval processes for treatments. They attribute these cost increases to factors such as hospital care, expensive new cancer therapies, and the expanding coverage of GLP-1 medications. Concurrently, rollbacks in government programs like Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act have contributed to more people losing health coverage.