According to a recent survey of employers by the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans (IFEBP), U.S. employers estimate a median 8% increase in health care costs for 2025. Catastrophic health claims and rising specialty prescription drug prices drive the projected increase. The latest findings are greater than those of the past two annual surveys, which both projected a 7% rise in health care costs.
Analysis of a separate survey from Aon reveals that the average cost of U.S. employer-sponsored health care coverage is estimated to increase by 9% in 2025. “This projected increase, which assumes employers do not implement employee cost-sharing increases and other cost-saving strategies, is higher than the 6.4 percent increase to health care budgets that employers experienced from 2023 to 2024 after cost-savings strategies.”
According to the IFEBP survey data, employers are implementing several cost management strategies, focusing more on utilization control and cost-sharing initiatives. Most employers (27%) plan to manage rising health care costs by implementing control initiatives (22%), such as prior authorization, case and disease management, and nurse advice lines. As employers continue to expect increased health care costs, more (21%) are planning to pass higher costs on to employees by increasing deductibles, coinsurance, copays or premium contributions, compared to 16% of employers who responded the same for 2024. Other cost containment strategies include plan design initiatives (15%), purchase and plan initiatives (19%), administration and data analysis initiatives (7%), and work and wellness programs (6%).