Health insurance premiums for U.S. families with employer-sponsored coverage plans climbed ~6% in 2025 amid rising prescription drug prices as more workplaces opted to cover the GLP-1 class of weight loss drugs, according to a report from health policy organization KFF on Wednesday.
Citing its annual benchmark health benefits survey, the nonprofit added that average family premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance reached $26,993 this year, implying a growth similar to the ~7% increase recorded in the prior two years.
Roughly 154M Americans aged below 65 years rely on employer-sponsored plans for health insurance, with their annual contributions to coverage being $6,850 in 2025, KFF said.
Its survey, focused on more than 1,800 U.S. public and private firms with at least 10 workers, comes at a time of growing popularity of GLP-1 drugs developed by Novo Nordisk (NVO) and Eli Lilly (LLY).
According to its results from large firms with at least 100 workers, 36% indicated that prescription drug prices contributed “a great deal” to higher premiums in recent years, while 30% and 26% attributed it to the prevalence of chronic ailments and higher medical utilization, respectively.
About a fifth (19%) of large firms (200 or more workers) offered coverage for GLP-1 drugs for weight loss in 2025, up from 18% last year. However, GLP-1 coverage significantly expanded among companies with at least 5,000 workers, with 43% of the biggest firms opting for coverage compared to 28% in 2024.
“There is a quiet alarm bell going off. With GLP-1s, increases in hospital prices, tariffs, and other factors, we expect employer premiums to rise more sharply next year,” said KFF President and CEO Drew Altman.
HR consulting firm Mercer projected in September that total health benefit costs for employer-sponsored healthcare plans could rise nearly 7% on average per U.S. employee next year, marking the biggest cost hike in 15 years.
Health insurers: UnitedHealth (NYSE:UNH), Humana (HUM), CVS Health (NYSE:CVS), Cigna (NYSE:CI), Clover Health (CLOV), Alignment Healthcare (ALHC), Centene (NYSE:CNC), Molina Healthcare (MOH), Elevance Health (ELV)