Health plans will cost more in 2027, for employers and workers

Employer-sponsored health insurance plans are poised to get more expensive next year.

Insurance broker Aon projected they’ll rise 9.5% to average more than $19,000 per employee. Companies typically shoulder about 80% of that burden, but workers will likely pay more, too.

The cost of employer-provided health insurance has increased by near double-digit percentages for four years in a row, said Todor Penev, Aon’s head of U.S. health analytics.

“Healthcare follows the trend rates in the general economy sometimes, with one or two year lag, right?” he said. “So if inflation was very high two, three years ago, healthcare inflation is high now.”

As in previous years, employers won’t shoulder the cost increases alone, said Larry Levitt, executive vice president for health policy at KFF.

“What they end up doing mostly is shifting costs to workers — either increasing their deductibles or limiting benefits in some way,” he said.

Levitt said the average deductible is now about $1,900 per person. Jeff Levin-Scherz, population health leader at insurance broker Willis Towers Watson, said employees could see benefits limited in a number of ways.

“They might see network limits, so that in some instances the highest priced hospital system might no longer be in plan,” he said.

Also, more plans might require prior authorizations and denials of coverage could rise.

Levin-Scherz said these changes often come packaged in new plans — cheaper, but with more restrictions. Those who want to maintain the same level of coverage end up paying more.