Battered by multiple years of high health care costs, employers are planning to shift more of the expense to workers in 2026, a new survey released Wednesday found.

Just over half of employers are planning to adjust their health insurance offerings to increase staffers’ share of the cost, such as instituting higher deductibles or annual out-of-pocket maximums, according to Mercer’s Survey on Health and Benefit Strategies for 2026.

The tight labor market and rising cost of living in recent years had made companies more reluctant to add to workers’ financial burden, Mercer said. Some 45% of employers reported in 2025 that they would shift more costs to staffers.

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