A New Automobile vs. Well being Insurance coverage? Common Household Job-Based mostly Protection Hits $27K

With the federal shutdown coming into its fourth week, spurred by a stalemate over the price of medical health insurance for 22 million Individuals on Inexpensive Care Act plans, a new report reveals that over 154 million folks with protection by way of an employer additionally face steep worth hikes — and that the scenario is more likely to worsen.

Premiums for job-based medical health insurance rose 6% in 2025 to a mean of $26,993 a yr for household protection, based on an annual survey of employers launched Oct. 22 by KFF, a well being data nonprofit that features KFF Well being Information.

It’s the primary time in 20 years that the price of overlaying a household of 4 has risen by 6% or extra for 3 consecutive years, knowledge from KFF reveals.

During the last 5 years, the typical premium for household protection has elevated by 26%, in contrast with a 29% enhance in employees’ wages and almost 24% progress in inflation. The typical value for household protection is now about the identical as a brand new Toyota Corolla hybrid.

The typical annual premium for a person well being plan supplied by employers elevated by 5% to $9,325 — almost $3,000 increased than in 2016, based on the survey.

“It’s a priority as well being prices simply maintain going up,” stated Eric Trump, controller at Steve Reiff Inc., a small firm in South Whitley, Indiana, that makes a speciality of sandblasting and portray heavy tools.

Trump, who just isn’t associated to President Donald Trump, stated his firm’s medical health insurance prices rose 8% for the 2026 fiscal yr — roughly the identical as they’ve in the previous couple of years.

Employees at Reiff pay about half the price of their well being protection. About half of its 20 present staff decline the insurance coverage as a result of they get protection by way of a member of the family or select to go uninsured, he stated. “There’s not lots we will do as we don’t have sufficient staff to unfold out the prices.”

Most individuals with job-based insurance coverage contribute to the price of their premiums, with the typical employee this yr contributing $1,440 for particular person protection or $6,850 for household protection.

Over time, extra employees have paid more and more increased deductibles, the quantity they have to spend out-of-pocket on medical companies earlier than their insurer pitches in. A couple of‑third of lined employees are enrolled in a plan with a deductible of $2,000 or extra for a person. The share of employees with such a plan has elevated 32% over the past 5 years and 77% over the past 10 years, the report stated.

Rising drug and hospital prices are sometimes cited as main culprits for rising medical health insurance prices, and neither reveals indicators of ebbing.

“Early experiences counsel that value tendencies might be increased for 2026, probably resulting in increased premium will increase except employers and plans discover methods to offset increased prices by way of adjustments to advantages, value sharing, or plan design,” the KFF survey stated.

One large concern amongst employers is the excessive worth of GLP-1 medication for weight reduction, which a rising variety of corporations cowl. Their excessive costs, mixed with sturdy demand, have led some workplaces to tighten or remove protection for weight reduction.

“Massive employers know these new high-priced weight-loss medication are an vital profit for his or her employees, however their prices usually exceed their expectations,” research creator Gary Claxton, a KFF senior vp, stated in a press launch. “It’s not a shock that some are rethinking entry to the medication for weight reduction.”

Employers sometimes reply to increased well being prices by shifting prices to their employees, however it’s unclear how way more monetary ache employees can take. The survey discovered almost half of enormous employers stated their staff have “average” or “excessive” issues about their stage of value sharing.

Whereas the rising value of employer-sponsored insurance coverage has outpaced normal inflation, the difficulty obtained scant consideration in current months on Capitol Hill. To assist pay for extending tax cuts, Trump’s tax and spending regulation reduces by billions of {dollars} the quantity the federal government spends on Medicaid, the state-federal medical health insurance program for 70 million low-income and disabled folks. Congressional price range scorekeepers predict the cuts to Medicaid will result in thousands and thousands extra folks turning into uninsured over the following decade.

The federal authorities has been shut down since Oct. 1 as Democrats refuse to vote for a brand new spending measure except Republicans agree to increase tax credit that assist about 22 million folks purchase well being protection by way of the ACA marketplaces. With out congressional motion, the tax credit will expire, and premiums will double for a lot of shoppers, beginning in January.

The KFF report is predicated on a survey this yr of 1,862 randomly chosen nonfederal private and non-private employers with 10 or extra employees.