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

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.

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.