K-12 Tax & $pending Climate: U.S. Workers Are Paying More for Healthcare, and Next Year Will Be Worse

Anna Wilde Mathews & Peter Loftus:

Surging healthcare costs are walloping U.S. workers, and they will only worsen next year. For 2027, employers may be facing the biggest health-insurance increase in at least two decades.

Americans with workplace coverage are expected to spend an average $5,297 this year on healthcare, $388 more than 2025, according to a new estimate from benefits-consulting firm Aon. The spending represents a combination of payroll deductions for premiums and out-of-pocket charges like deductibles and copays.

The burden is likely to grow significantly next year, when U.S. employers expect their healthcare costs to go up by 11.1%, according to a new survey from WTW, another big benefits consultant—the steepest rise in more than 20 years.

That would represent the fifth year of escalating increases, according to WTW. “Employers are telling us that this is utterly unsustainable,” said Jeff Levin-Scherz, population-health leader at WTW. Expensive cancer treatments and wide adoption of weight-loss drugs are among the factors pushing up spending.

At larger companies, the rapid rise has moved decisions around health benefits from the domain of human-resources executives into the C-suite, said Mike Pasterick, North America health-solutions leader at Aon. “We’re seeing a lot of interest now from the finance organization and even the CEO and the board.”