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Workers Now Pay $7,471 on Average Annually for Family Health Coverage, Up 9% or $621 from 2025

Workers are paying on average $7,471 annually toward the premiums for employer-sponsored family health benefits in 2026, which is up 9%, or $621, from 2025. Including the employers’ share, total annual premiums for family coverage now average $28,303, up 5% from 2025. This benchmark annual survey also captures trends in deductibles, offer rates, and employer practices, and employers' experiences with GLP-1 and IVF coverage and understanding costs and utilization.

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What Are the Recent Trends in Employer-Based Health Coverage?

Employer-sponsored health insurance is the largest source of health coverage for people under 65. This analysis examines who among people under 65 have employer coverage and which workers are offered and eligible for coverage at their jobs, using the Annual Economic and Social (March) Supplements of the Current Population Survey.

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  • Americans’ Challenges with Health Care Costs

    Issue Brief

    This data note summarizes recent KFF polling on Americans’ experiences with health care costs, which factor into decisions about insurance coverage and care seeking and consistently ranks as a top financial worry for adults and their families.

  • How Much is Health Spending Expected to Grow?

    Feature

    This chart collection explores how much health spending is expected to grow in the coming years, with a look at growth in prescription drug spending, out-of-pocket spending, and related trends.

  • 2026 Employer Health Benefits Survey

    Feature

    This is the 28th Employer Health Benefits Survey (EHBS) and reflects employer-sponsored health benefits in 2026. As in years past, the survey examines trends in employer coverage, including premiums, employee contributions, deductibles, offer rates, and employer practices. This year, we asked employers detailed questions about satisfaction with their health plans; coverage of GLP-1 agonists and IVF; actions taken in response to projected cost increases; and firms’ ability to obtain information about health care costs and…

  • Workers Now Pay $7,471 on Average Annually for Family Health Coverage, Up 9% or $621 from 2025, Benchmark Employer Health Benefits Survey Finds

    News Release

    Workers are paying on average $7,471 annually toward the premiums for employer-sponsored family health benefits this year, which is up 9%, or $621, from 2025, per KFF’s annual benchmark health benefits survey of large and small employers. The burden of family premiums hits particularly hard for workers at small firms with less than 200 workers. On average, covered workers in small firms are contributing $9,687 annually toward family coverage this year. That’s $2,847 more than…

  • Premiums and Worker Contributions Among Workers Covered by Employer-Sponsored Coverage, 1999-2026

    Interactive

    Since 1999, the Employer Health Benefits Survey has documented trends in employer-sponsored health insurance. Every year, private and non-federal public employers with 10 or more employees complete the survey. Among other topics, the survey asks firms for the premium (or full per-person cost) of their health coverage, as well as worker contributions (amount of the premium that workers pay). The graphing tool below looks at changes in premiums and worker contributions over time for covered…

  • A Guide to the Role of Health in the Midterms

    From Drew Altman

    In a new column, President and CEO Dr. Drew Altman says health care costs are playing a significant role in the midterms as one dimension of voters’ concerns about cost of living, and explains why pollsters, analysts, and candidates should look at it that way, and not as a separate voting issue. He writes, “The ‘issue’ that matters most in this election is cost of living and the cost of health care is a central…

  • KFF Health Tracking Poll: Health Care Issues in the Lead-Up to the 2026 Midterm Election 

    Poll Finding

    With the 2026 midterms about a month away, health care costs remain tied with gas as voters’ top midterm concerns and the Democrats hold a clear edge over the Republicans Party on who voters trust to handle many top electoral issues, including the cost of health care and the cost of living. Two-thirds of U.S. adults now favor Medicare-for-all, a new high in KFF Polling, but support shifts when competing claims from critics and proponents…