| People in the US spend more money on health care than just about any other industrialized country, despite having some of the worst health outcomes. And prices are continuing to go up, according to an analysis released Wednesday. Most people younger than 65 in the US get health insurance through their employer, and the average yearly premium for a family jumped 6% this year to nearly $27,000, according to an annual survey conducted by KFF, the health policy nonprofit. Employers pay most of that, with employees chipping in an average of $6,850. “This is an expensive system that continues to get more expensive,” said Matthew Rae, an associate director at KFF who runs the survey. He noted that these numbers are just the amount of money people are paying for coverage — they don’t include co-pays or other out-of-pocket costs. Health care costs are increasing and employers have relatively few tools to keep costs down, Rae said. Data collected in the survey show that most employers aren’t even using the scarce tools they do have, like restricting how much they will pay for certain procedures or limiting which health care providers are covered. Among the factors that employers say are contributing to increasing health care costs are prescription drug prices, the prevalence of chronic diseases and the soaring use of GLP-1 drugs like Wegovy. Nearly 60% of employers with at least 5,000 workers that cover GLP-1 drugs for weight loss say the cost has exceeded their expectations, according to the KFF survey. That could drive some companies to eliminate the coverage or add restrictions. The skyrocketing levels of spending are not accompanied by excellent health. Life expectancy at birth in the US is well below several comparable countries. Rates of maternal mortality and obesity are higher as well.
High premiums are also keeping wages down. A study published last year showed that if employers allocated the same percentage of total compensation for health insurance as they did in 1988 for the next 30 years, the typical family would have taken home about $125,000 more over that period. Data from the KFF survey also showed that premiums for family coverage have been rising more quickly than wages since 2015, except for the pandemic years of 2021 and 2022. Rae said that costs may increase even more next year. “There are lots of indications that 2026 is going to be a bigger year for spending,” he said. Indeed, JPMorgan Chase Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said he thinks the bank will spend 10% more on employee health costs in 2026. And the consulting firm PwC expects costs for group health insurance, which includes employer-sponsored coverage, will increase by 8.5%, the same rate of increase seen this and last year. — Ike Swetlitz | 
