Health insurance costs have soared for workers and employers.
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Workers on family health insurance plans paid $7,471 for premiums in 2026, a 9% increase from 2025.
Costs are even higher at smaller businesses: Workers there pay nearly $10,000 for family premiums.
Rising premiums have outpaced wage growth, and are only expected to increase more in 2027.
It’s costing families nearly $7,500 a year for health insurance — and more increases are looming.
A 2026 health benefits survey from KFF found that workers on a family plan paid an average of $7,471 a year in premiums — a 9% increase from 2025. And that’s just the worker contribution — when accounting for employer contributions, family plan premiums totaled $28,303 in 2026, a roughly 5% increase from 2025.
That’s a hefty price for both workers and their employers, and even more acute for workers at smaller businesses : KFF’s survey found that at firms with fewer than 200 employees, they paid nearly $10,000 toward family premiums in 2026. Smaller firms are often more beholden to insurance companies, since they don’t wield the same bargaining power as larger firms.
Mounting health costs might be part of why consumers feel so gloomy: As wages have increased, insurance premiums have risen even faster. While wages increased 3.7% year-over-year for workers — which might look like a nice pay bump on paper — worker-paid premiums outpaced that salary growth, rising by 9%.
And over the past few years, how much workers pay for health plans has eaten up a larger share of their household income. For workers across all firms, their premium costs amounted to nearly 8% of real household median income in 2025.
Are you worried about rising health insurance costs, or already paying thousands out of pocket? Share your story with this reporter at jkaplan@businessinsider.com .
All of that comes as employers and workers brace for open enrollment season, and more hikes loom: An analysis from PricewaterhouseCoopers , based on a survey of health plan actuaries, projects that commercial healthcare group costs will rise by 9% in 2027. Similarly, Aon, an insurance management firm, found that employer healthcare costs are projected to climb by 9.5% next year without any cost mitigation measures — meaning before firms figure out how to pass some of those mounting costs on to their workers.
For workers and firms, that means a tighter financial squeeze: Companies are paying more to cover their workers, but costs are likely still outpacing wages . At the same time, firms might not be able to provide higher wages as care costs climb. It means that everyone is paying more, and nobody’s feeling good about it: An Ipsos/Axios poll found that 69% of Americans say a 10% increase would negatively impact their household finances, with 30% saying it would have a major negative impact.
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