Employers will pay more than $15,000 on average for each employee's healthcare in 2024, according to ananalysis from consulting firm Aon.
Employer-sponsored insurance costs will rise 8.5 percent in 2024, up from an average of $13,906 per employee in 2023, according to Aon's estimates published Aug. 22.
Though inflation has spiked in the past two years, employer-sponsored healthcare costs have stayed relatively stable because of multiyear contracts, Debbie Ashford, chief actuary for Health Solutions at Aon, said in a news release.
"Even though inflation is subsiding, healthcare trend is growing as medical providers push insurers for larger cost increases to cover the higher costs of wages and supplies that they endured during the last couple years but were unable to pass on to payers," Ms. Ashford said.
"Other contributing factors adding pressure on healthcare cost trends are the proliferation of newly indicated weight loss drugs, new technologies, severity of catastrophic claims and increasing share of specialty drugs," she added.
In a tight labor market, employers will likely absorb most of the rising costs, rather than charging employees higher premiums, according to Aon's report.
Read the full report here.