More than half of employers plan to shift more healthcare costs to employees in 2026, according to a survey by Mercer.
The consulting firm surveyed 504 large employers on their employee benefit strategies in April 2025.
Here are 10 things to know:
- Healthcare costs rose by 4.5% in 2024, and employers expect their costs to rise by 5.8% on average in 2025.
- Prescription drug costs rose by 8% in 2024, down slightly from 8.6% in 2023.
- 51% of employers said they are likely or very likely to make plan design changes that will shift more cost sharing to employees in 2026. This number is slightly higher than last year, when 45% of employers said they were likely to shift more costs to employees.
- A handful of large employers, 12%, offer free employee-only coverage in at least one health plan. More employers, 37%, offer a medical plan with no or a low deductible.
- A small number of large employers, 4%, offer no or low-interest loans for medical expenses, and 7% provide larger HSA contributions to employees with lower incomes.
- More employers are considering high-performance networks and other nontraditional plan offerings. Currently, 18% of employers use a national carrier high-performance network, and 24% are considering adding these networks in 2026 or 2027.
- Just 2% of employers use an independent vendor for a high-performance network, and 12% of employers are considering adding these vendors in the next two years.
- Some employers are considering adding variable copay plans, which charge members copays based on the prices charged by providers. In 2025, 7% of employers offer the option, while 29% are considering adding this type of plan. These plans are more common in industries with lower-paid employees, according to Mercer.
- Managing cost for GLP-1 medications was the top prescription benefits concern for employers. More than three-fourths of employers rated managing the cost of these drugs as extremely or very important.
- Employers were more likely to say they will add coverage for GLP-1 drugs than to drop it, according to Mercer.
Read the full report here.
