Sunday, September 6th, 2026
A survey of more than 1,800 employers puts the 2027 increase in health benefit costs at 8.2 percent, the steepest since 2003. That figure is what remains after the changes employers plan to make, and the largest of those changes is asking employees to pay more.
State unemployment insurance runs on software and staffing calibrated to a low claim rate, which is exactly the condition that stops holding in a downturn.
After a spending boom, employers are auditing what their mental health benefits actually deliver, and the results are separating clinical substance from wellness decoration.
Employers battered by health costs are reviving an old idea: putting the doctor inside the workplace, and the modern version is outperforming its ancestor.
Mid-sized employers, squeezed by renewal increases, are contracting directly with flat-fee primary care clinics and cutting insurers out of the first layer of care.