NEW YORK, Sept. 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Companies plan to evaluate disruptive changes to their healthcare plans as the cost of healthcare in the U.S. rises to the highest point in over two decades, according to a new survey by WTW (NASDAQ:WTW), a leading global advisory, broking and solutions company. The 2025 Best Practices in Healthcare Survey finds that U.S. employers project their healthcare costs, before plan changes, will increase by 9.1% in 2026, compared with 8.1% in 2025 and 7.0% in 2024. The trend after plan changes is 8.0%, 7.0% and 6.0%, respectively.
Cost pressures have prompted one in three employers to consider making significant changes to their healthcare programs within the next three years. According to the survey, employers identified their top drivers of healthcare costs as: (1) pharmacy costs, primarily specialty pharmaceuticals and GLP-1 medications, (2) high-cost claimants and (3) chronic conditions, especially musculoskeletal and cancers.
To tackle these financial challenges, employers’ top priorities over the next three years are company medical costs, company pharmacy costs and affordability for employees. Following these primary concerns, they are prioritizing employee wellbeing, employee experience and healthcare delivery to round out their health-focused strategies for 2026.
While cost-shifting strategies continue to assist in controlling employer health plan costs, companies are managing their program costs by other means. Nearly three-fifths (59%) of employers intend to implement broader cost-savings actions in the next three years versus 46% in the past three years. Employers are prioritizing changes to program subsidies, adoption of alternative plan designs, improving vendor or operational efficiency, and utilization of more effective steerage or behavioral requirements. To address the rising impact of chronic conditions, employers cite the need to …