KFF survey puts average US family health premium at $28,303 in 2026

The average premium for individual coverage approached $10,000, also up 5% from 2025. Workers paid about $1,700 for a single plan, a 16% increase, against 5% for the total premium.

Average pay rose 3.7% over the past year, KFF found, so both the total premium and the worker contribution grew faster than take-home pay. The survey covered more than 1,900 non-federal public and private employers with at least 10 workers. The worker contribution rose faster than the total premium, according to figures the Wall Street Journal reported. Matthew Rae, an associate director at KFF, told NPR: "If this is the beginning of a shift of costs on to workers, that would be a big deal in terms of affordability."

The 2026 figure follows $26,993 for family coverage in 2025, when KFF recorded a 6% rise and premiums of $2,249 a month. Louise Norris, a health policy analyst at HealthInsurance.org, told Yahoo Finance that an aging population, rising hospital costs and new drugs including GLP-1s are pushing premiums higher.

Who absorbs the increase

Employers still pay most of the premium, typically about 70% for a family plan, Yahoo Finance reported. Some are defraying the cost by requiring workers to take a larger share and by raising deductibles, USA Today reported.

The amount workers pay often depends on employer size. Workers at smaller companies paid $9,687 on average toward family coverage; those at companies with 200 or more employees paid $2,847 less for a comparable plan. "We're seeing a big increase in 2026" for workers, Rae said. "We could begin to see real pressure on employees." James Gelfand is president and CEO of the ERISA Industry Committee, which represents large employers that pay medical claims. "The health care industry is gobbling more of every dollar of take home pay," he said.

Gelfand said large employers are trying to slow the increases, but that health care expenses are growing faster than the overall economy.

David Radley, a senior scientist at the Commonwealth Fund, told Yahoo Finance that renewals often outrun annual raises. "It actually feels like it's eating up a larger portion of their paycheck," he said. A Commonwealth Fund analysis of 2024 data found that families earning the median household income put 10% or more of their paychecks toward premiums and deductibles for employer coverage in 19 states, especially in the South, against a national average of 10.1%.

Deductibles and drug coverage

Joseph Babbit, a senior financial controller whose employer covers most of his premiums, told NPR that deductibles had gone from $250 or $500 in the 1990s to $5,000 now. "We are the only country on our planet that forces people into bankruptcy because they get sick," he said.

Among employers with 5,000 or more workers, 43% covered GLP-1 drugs such as Wegovy and Zepbound for obesity a year earlier. In 2026, 33% did. Most of those employers said obesity coverage for the drugs added a significant amount to overall prescription spending. At employers with 200 or more workers, 18% covered GLP-1s for obesity. Gelfand said some large employers "experimented with it, and now they're pulling back."

The Commonwealth Fund's 2026 Biennial Health Insurance Survey found that nearly half of working-age adults were uninsured, had a coverage gap or were underinsured in 2026. The fund counts people as underinsured when out-of-pocket costs excluding premiums reach 10% of household income, or when the deductible reaches 5% of household income.

What happens next

Most working-age Americans are about to find out what their employer health insurance will cost for 2027 as they select plans during open enrollment.

Rae said projections from private-sector benefits consultants suggest employer benefit cost increases could approach double-digit rates in 2027. Nearly 157 million Americans under 65 get coverage through an employer, against fewer than 20 million enrolled in ACA plans as of February 2026.