Your health insurance bill may rise again in 2026. Here’s why costs will keep rising

Health insurance premium rates have risen this year, and the rising costs of health services and prescriptions are expected to push premium rates up again next year.

In 2025, premiums for family health insurance through employer-sponsored plans rose 6%, or $1,408, over last year, according to a recent report from KFF, a nonpartisan health care research organization. The average worker pays $6,850 of his or her salary annually to cover a family. Insurance premiums rose by 7% in 2023 and 2024.

Employers reported earlier this year that they plan to shift more health care costs to their workers in 2026. Many employers say the shift is intended to offset increases in health care expenses and the use of high-cost medications, such as GLP-1s. Experts also say that some actions taken by the Trump administration, such as potential tariffs on prescription drugs and Medicare cuts, could lead to higher drug prices.

“With GLP-1, increases in hospital rates and tariffs and other factors, we expect employer premiums to rise more sharply next year,” Drew Altman, president and CEO of KFF, said in a prepared statement. “Employers do not have anything new in their arsenal that can address most of the factors causing their cost increases, and this may lead to an increase in deductibles and other forms of employee cost sharing again.”

The 2025 premium increase is higher than the headline inflation rate of 2.7% and wage growth of 4% over the same time period.

More than a third of companies that provide employer-sponsored coverage say increases in prescription drug prices have contributed “significantly” to premium increases in the past few years. Other factors contributing to higher insurance premiums include coverage for newer and more expensive drugs, higher prevalence of chronic diseases, increased use of health services, and higher hospital costs, KFF found.