The average cost of employer-sponsored health care coverage in the U.S. is expected to increase 9.0 percent*, surpassing $16,000 per employee in 2025, according to Aon plc (NYSE: AON), a leading global professional services firm.
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. On average, the budgeted health-plan cost for clients is $14,823 per employee in 2024. The analysis uses Aon’s Health Value Initiative database, which captures information for more than 950 U.S. employers representing approximately 6.7 million employees.
Medical claims continue to trend at elevated levels, while prescription drug costs are climbing higher due to continued growth in specialty drugs and increased utilization of GLP-1 medications for diabetes and obesity.
Increase to U.S. Health Care Plan Costs from 2023 to 2024
In terms of 2024 health plans, employer costs increased 6.4 percent, while employee premiums from pay checks were slated to be a more modest 3.4 percent increase from 2023, according to Aon’s analysis. Both are notably higher than averages from the prior five years, when employer budgets grew an average of 4.4 percent per year and employees averaged 1.2 percent per year.** On average, employers subsidize about 81 percent of the plan cost, while employees pay the remainder.
Employees in 2024 are contributing about $4,858 for health care coverage, of which $2,867 is paid in the form of premiums from pay checks and $1,991 is paid through plan design features such as deductibles, co-pays and co-insurance, according to the firm’s analysis.
