Employer health plans are in a state of flux at this time of macroeconomic uncertainty and rising costs, with employers taking various steps to either lower their own expenses or make their benefits more appealing to workers.
Nearly half of U.S. organizations experienced a health-plan premium increase of at least 7% at their most recent renewal, according to insurance broker and risk management consultancy Gallagher’s 2025 U.S. Benefits Benchmarks Report.
One clear response, a nod to lower-paid employees, is a shift away from high-deductible plans and toward consumer-directed health plans with an attached health savings account.
In 2025, more than half (55%) of 4,035 U.S. organizations surveyed by Gallagher are offering a CDP with an HSA. In 2020, only 40% of employers did so, Gallagher wrote in its research report.
Additionally, telemedicine, a cost-control strategy that began surging in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic, is now offered by 70% of those surveyed.
Other resources aimed at reining in costs while offering a competitive benefits package include the provision of wellbeing services (44% of respondents), cost-transparency tools (30%), health-care decision support (27%) and enhanced mental and behavioral health programming (18%).
With regard to the wellbeing services, elements “once considered fringe” are now critical to a “holistic and inclusive” wellbeing approach, with features like family support and financial perks gaining importance alongside disease management.
Defined broadly, however, wellbeing also includes career-oriented initiatives, such as management or leadership development training (offered by 70% of Gallagher’s survey participants), ongoing performance feedback or coaching (69%), employee development training (65%) and mentoring programs.
Of course, not all the steps companies are taking are favorable to employees. Almost a third (31%) of the respondents said their organization is increasing employees’ share of health-care costs through medical plan design changes. More than half (54%) of those said they’re hiking their plan premiums.
Almost as many (26%) are implementing changes to prescription drug plans. These actions “often include switching their [pharmacy benefits manager] or renegotiating PBM contracts, altering their approach to covering weight-loss medications and deploying multiple tactics to better control specialty drug costs,” Gallagher wrote.
Most organizations, however, are not choosing at this time to increase direct pharmacy-specific cost sharing through higher co-pays and coinsurance rates, according to the report.
