Inflation, GLP-1 drugs, and catastrophic medical claims will push employer health care costs significantly higher next year, according to new projections.
Two new reports found that employers’ health care costs will rise between 8% and 9% in 2025 if organizations don’t find ways to reduce spending.
The average cost of employer-sponsored health care coverage in the U.S. is expected to increase by 9% in 2025, surpassing $16,000 per employee, according to an analysis from Aon. That’s significantly higher than the 6.4% increase in health care budgets that employers experienced from 2023 to 2024, with an average cost of $14,823 per employee after cost-saving strategies. Employers bore the brunt of the expense in 2024, paying $11,956 versus the $2,867 average that employees paid, according to Aon’s analysis of its Health Value Initiative database, which captures information for more than 950 U.S. employers representing approximately 6.7 million employees.
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Employers Project 8%-9% Rise in Health Care Costs for 2025
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