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Employee health benefits to spike 9.5% in 2027

Researchers said employers will work on benefit design and overall employee wellness to try to cap the rising cost of employee health benefits.

Sara Heath
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Published: 24 Aug 2026

Employers can expect to pay 9.5% more for employee health benefits in 2027, with new reporting from professional services firm Aon projecting average employee healthcare costs totaling more than $19,000 in the coming year.

These numbers reflect the fourth consecutive year of healthcare cost growth approaching double digits, the firm said.

"At this level, rising health care costs become much more than a budgeting challenge and influence organizational decisions from benefits strategy and employee affordability to broader workforce and financial planning priorities," Mike Pasterick, North America Health Solutions leader at Aon, said in a statement. "Leaders are undergoing pressure to maintain affordable benefits while continuing to invest in attracting, supporting and retaining talent."

The drivers behind these healthcare cost increases might not be surprising. According to Aon, trends like increased healthcare utilization, greater chronic disease prevalence and the volume of high-cost claims all contribute to rising health benefits costs.

Employers must also contend with changes in prescription drug spending, including the increased use of specialty medications and GLP-1 drugs, Aon said. With regard to GLP-1s, specifically, employers are facing mounting pressure to balance access and low costs, especially as the drugs are expanded to treat more conditions and oral formulations emerge.

Finally, Aon flagged provider AI adoption. Some reports have shown that AI tools can create more detailed documentation and, therefore, higher billed charges in some cases.

Aon anticipates employers will deploy cost containment strategies, including changes in plan design, to offset some cost increases. In other words, the plans employers offer will likely change in either carrier or comprehensiveness in order to reduce the overall price tag for employee health benefits.

Employers continue to cover insurance cost increases

Moreover, Aon said it expects employers to continue to shoulder most of the cost increases.

That's what has happened in previous years. For example, between 2025 and 2026, total plan costs jumped from $16,212 to $17,562 per employee. Employers increased the amount they subsidize employee plans by 0.4%, meaning overall per-employee costs increased by 8.8%. Employees saw a 6.4% cost increase.

Still, employees should expect to see their own costs go up, just as they did in 2026. According to Aon, employees will likely close out 2026 having paid an overage of $5,297 for their health plans, up 7.9% from the year before. This includes an average of $3,130 in payroll contributions and $2,167 in out-of-pocket expenses, including copays.

That out-of-pocket healthcare cost increase is notable, coming in at 10.2% between 2025 and 2026. Aon said the spike is due to greater healthcare utilization and enrollment in leaner health plans.

Health plans look to tamp down on rising costs

In addition to considering plan design, employers are setting their sights on employee health outcomes as a way to curb rising healthcare costs. This will require more work on the downstream factors that influence health outcomes, according to Debbie Ashford, North America chief actuary for Health Solutions for Aon.

"The organizations best positioned for the future will be those that can proactively identify emerging risks and take targeted action before costs escalate," Ashford explained.

"Health care costs are becoming increasingly difficult to manage through traditional approaches alone. Employers will need better data and deeper insights to understand where costs are rising and how they can make more informed decisions about their health care investments."

Sara Heath is an executive editor at Xtelligent Healthcare Media, where she covers patient engagement, healthcare policy and health IT.

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