Aug 30, 2022
Average costs for U.S. employers that pay for their employees' health care will increase 6.5% in 2023 to more than $13,800 per employee. That’s up from $13,020 in 2022, according to Aon. The analysis uses the firm's Health Value Initiative database, which captures information for nearly 700 U.S. employers representing approximately 5.6 million employees.
This projection is more than double the 3% increase to health care budgets that employers experienced from 2021 to 2022. However, it is significantly below the 9.1% inflation figure reported through the Consumer Price Index. Debbie Ashford of Aon said, "In complete contrast to the past decades, …health care budgets…will come in nearly three times lower than the Consumer Price Index.”
Medical claims were suppressed for most employers during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic while people postponed or skipped care. Employers have seen medical claims return to more typical growth levels. They anticipate inflationary cost pressures in the coming year.
