More employers plan to pass along health care costs to workers in 2026

CNN
 — 

Battered by multiple years of high health care costs, employers are planning to shift more of the expense to workers in 2026, a new survey released Wednesday found.

Just over half of employers are planning to adjust their health insurance offerings to increase staffers’ share of the cost, such as instituting higher deductibles or annual out-of-pocket maximums, according to Mercer’s Survey on Health and Benefit Strategies for 2026.

The tight labor market and rising cost of living in recent years had made companies more reluctant to add to workers’ financial burden, Mercer said. Some 45% of employers reported in 2025 that they would shift more costs to staffers.

“Employers are thinking, we’re at a point where we can’t do another year of not passing along some of the cost increases,” said Beth Umland, director of research at Mercer’s Health and Benefits business.

Companies expected their health benefits expenses to jump by nearly 6% this year, after experiencing a 4.5% increase in 2024.

Costs will likely rise at an even higher rate next year, driven in part by patients’ increased usage and doctors using artificial intelligence to more accurately bill insurers, said Sunit Patel, US chief health actuary at Mercer.

Another area of cost concern is coverage of anti-obesity GLP-1 medications, which are very popular but very expensive. Nearly two-thirds of companies with 20,000 or more workers provided such coverage in 2024, while 44% of employers with 500 or more workers did.

The pace of employers adding such coverage is likely to slow in 2026, Umland said.

Companies may be reluctant to stop providing the benefit but may narrow eligibility or require more documentation — making it more difficult for workers to access it, Patel said.

Meanwhile, employers remain committed to providing mental health services for staffers, the survey found. More are offering onsite Employee Assistance Program counseling services — some 35% will do so next year, up from 29% this year. They are also providing more sessions, moving to six to eight sessions, rather than the traditional three to five.

Also, as employers increasingly require staffers to return to the office, companies are more interested in providing child care or elder care benefits, Mercer found. Some 54% of large employers provide — or will offer next year — at least one child care resource, including a platform to search for child care, access to backup child care services or tuition discounts.

Likewise, 58% of large employers offer or plan to provide at least one type of elder care benefit, including grief counseling, a platform to search for elder care or access to backup elder care services.

Some 59% of employers will offer at least one resource to support women’s reproductive health, including lactation support, high-risk pregnancy and pre-conception family planning.

Employees will find out more details about their health care benefits for the coming year during the annual open enrollment period, which typically occurs in the fall.