Employers are also getting ready to transfer more healthcare costs onto their employees in 2026. Recent findings from Mercer, a national consulting firm, shed further light on this trend. Sunit Patel, a prominent figure at Mercer, predicts that healthcare expenses will likely escalate at an even higher rate next year. As exploratory demand increases so does patient usage – which is up nearly 50%. Healthcare providers have likewise adopted AI to better code for billing to insurance companies.
As employers face increasing financial pressures, many companies are taking a fresh look at the role their health insurance plays in their benefits package. New data finds only slightly more than one in two employers are prepared to shift their workforce’s health benefit. They plan to pass more of the costs onto employees. Such changes can take the form of increased deductibles or larger annual out-of-pocket maximums. By 2025, 45% of employers said they planned to move more costs onto employees.
The regular open enrollment period happens once a year, during the fall. It’s a period when employees are empowered with crucial information on their healthcare options for the year ahead. In the interim, businesses and governments will announce changes to their health benefits and the tools they’ll use to help keep their workers healthy.
Beth Umland, director of research at Mercer’s Health and Benefits business, noted the dilemma facing employers amid a tight labor market and rising living costs. “Employers are thinking, we’re at a point where we can’t do another year of not passing along some of the cost increases,” she stated. Her sentiment is emblematic of a larger shift where businesses are still forced to choose between supporting their employees and being financially viable.
Beyond reproductive healthcare policy changes, employers are stepping up their commitments to support women’s reproductive health. An encouraging 59% of employers are already planning on deploying at least one resource to support this area. These include lactation resources, high-risk pregnancy planning, and pre-conception family planning services. Big employers are currently meeting those varied needs by setting up new infrastructures to offer more direct support. In 2024, almost two-thirds of our large employers—those with 20,000 or more workers—offered distinct coverage. That’s in contrast to only 44% of firms with 500 or more employees doing the same.
Employers are looking beyond leaves and to broader family support. According to recent data, 54% of employers with 5,000 or more employees either already have childcare resources available, or plan to next year. And from the employers we surveyed, 58% of larger employers intend to adopt elder care benefits in the next couple years.
As organizations adapt to evolving healthcare demands and economic pressures, employees can expect significant changes in their healthcare benefits during the upcoming open enrollment period. Employers are clearly committed to doing better by their current and future workforce. In doing so, they need to address the challenge of increasing costs, too.