The data: Employers are expected to spend more than $18,500 per US worker on health benefits in 2026, according to a Mercer survey released this week. That would represent a 6.7% jump from 2025—the largest increase in 15 years. Over 2,000 employers were surveyed this summer. Mercer’s final report will be released later this year, and its 2026 projections are based largely on the healthcare spending increases in 2025.

Digging into the data: Prescription drug spending drove up overall health benefit costs, spiking 9.4%, on average, this year among employers with more than 500 workers.

• The rise in prescription drug spending was the biggest year-over-year increase in a decade, according to Mercer.

Specifically, pricey GLP-1s are driving up prescription drug spending for employers, per Mercer.

• Nearly half (49%) of employers with 500+ workers covered GLP-1s this year, up from 44% in 2024 and 41% in 2023.
• That jumps to 66% among employers with 20,000+ workers.

Why it matters: Heading into this year’s open enrollment period, employers have had to weigh passing costs onto workers via higher premiums against absorbing the increases.

Raising costs for workers risks making employers less attractive to candidates and would worsen healthcare affordability for current employees.

• People have been contending with employer-sponsored health insurance costs rising faster than both inflation and wages since 2023, Mercer’s study revealed.
• And nearly half (47%) of US adults worry about how they’ll pay for necessary healthcare expenses next year, according to a just-released West Health and Gallup study.

Implications for employers: Employers will adopt programs designed to manage costs for workers with high-spend conditions such as diabetes and cardiovascular or musculoskeletal issues. But it’s unclear how effective these solutions are at reducing patients’ use of costly healthcare services.

Employers must conduct due diligence of vendors that offer healthcare cost-containment solutions to ensure the products are effective and deliver actual savings. Companies will also want to thoroughly evaluate their contracts with pharmacy benefit managers to better understand their prescription drug benefits, while considering limits on GLP-1 coverage, especially as upcoming oral versions and new condition approvals drive up demand.

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