On Election Eve, Worried Voters Face Staggering Hikes In Healthcare Costs
In my final post before the mid-terms, here’s where things stand for Americans on health care costs, which voters rank as either their first or second most pressing economic concern:
- The cost of employer-sponsored health insurance will leap 8.2 percent in 2027, which will drive workers co-premiums up by a similar amount if not higher. (Worker co-premiums jumped nine percent last year.)
- The average worker on a company-sponsored plan this year paid $8,460 in premiums and $3,564 in deductibles, co-pays and other out-of-pocket expenses. Combined, that’s 13.7 percent of the median household’s income.
- The cost of individual and family plans sold on the federal and state exchanges, where open enrollment began this week, rose 15 percent for 2027. That’s the second straight year of double digit increases.
- The uninsured rate rose to 11 percent this year after millions of people were thrown of Medicaid or lost their Affordable Care Act plans due to rising premiums and lost subsidies. That’s up from eight percent in January 2025 when President Trump took office for the second time.
- While no one publishes reliable numbers, the price of seniors’ Medigap policies is also soaring. In New York State, for instance, UnitedHealth sought a 12.6 percent increase for its Medicare supplemental plans earlier this year. State regulators approved “only” a 5.6 percent increase, two percentage points higher than the overall inflation rate.
- Seniors who purchase stand-alone drug plans will see a 50 percent increase in their average premiums in 2027, according to today’s KFF News. Trump’s response? “We have the lowest drug prices anywhere in the world,” he told a campaign rally in Ohio earlier this week.
I am traveling this week to San Antonio to attend the American Public Health Association’s annual meeting, where I will be moderating a panel discussion on Monday afternoon. The topic: Where the nation stands in its 100-year quest for universal coverage and where we go from here.
Merrill Goozner, the former editor of Modern Healthcare, writes about health care and politics at GoozNews.substack.com, where this column first appeared. Please consider subscribing to support his work.
Reprinted with permission from GoozNews
