{"id":126710,"date":"2025-09-07T14:04:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T14:04:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/126710\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T14:04:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T14:04:06","slug":"americans-face-biggest-increase-in-health-insurance-costs-in-15-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/126710\/","title":{"rendered":"Americans face biggest increase in health insurance costs in 15 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free<\/p>\n

Your guide to what Trump\u2019s second term means for Washington, business and the world<\/p>\n

US health insurers, reeling from slumping share prices, are raising insurance premiums by the most in 15 years, adding to fears that American consumers are struggling under the weight of high costs.<\/p>\n

One of the insurance companies, UnitedHealth, has cited tariffs from President Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s trade wars as a reason for the increases.<\/p>\n

The cost of companies\u2019 health insurance plans for employees is expected to jump by an average of 6.5 per cent in 2026, the biggest increase in 15 years, according to a report by Mercer. For people who buy health insurance on government exchanges, the median increase for 2026 is 18 per cent \u2014 more than double last year\u2019s 7 per cent rise, according to KFF, a non-profit health policy research group.<\/p>\n

These insurance increases come as Americans are facing higher household expenditures. A National Federation of Independent Business report from July said one-third of companies plan to increase prices, the highest reading since March last year. US utilities are pushing for $29bn in rate rises<\/a>, a 142 per cent increase over the same period a year ago. The August report for US consumer prices will be published next week.<\/p>\n

Centene, which is the third-worst performer so far this year in the S&P 500, is under fire from Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders <\/a>for its cost increases. Earlier this month, she blasted the company for proposing to raise health insurance premiums by up to 54 per cent.<\/p>\n

\u201cArkansans are tired of getting outrageous bills from multi-billion-dollar insurance companies,\u201d Sanders said, calling on the state\u2019s insurance commissioner to reject Centene\u2019s price increase.<\/p>\n

Recommended<\/p>\n

\"Sarah<\/a><\/p>\n

In Maryland and Oregon, UnitedHealth has said it is increasing certain insurance rates by 2.4 per cent and 2.7 per cent respectively \u201cto account for uncertainty regarding tariffs\u201d as well as the costs of returning pharmaceutical production to the US. And in Ohio, UnitedHealth is increasing an insurance risk margin by 0.5 per cent due to tariff risks.<\/p>\n

The tariffs\u2019 uncertainty has forced insurance companies to raise rates, and \u201cthe consequences of this are consumers have to pay that extra cost\u201d, said Matt McGough, a policy analyst at KFF. \u201cThey foot the bill of this uncertainty.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

People might not expect tariffs to show up in their healthcare costs, \u201cbut all signs from insurers is that they are\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

Minnesota-based UnitedHealth declined to comment. Its shares are down 38 per cent so far this year, and it is also one of the worst performers in the S&P 500 index. The company\u2019s regulatory filings this year have not mentioned tariffs as a risk. Instead, the company has said rising healthcare costs have eaten into its earnings. The company is also facing a criminal investigation<\/a> into its Medicare billing practices.<\/p>\n

UnitedHealth\u2019s tariff-related cost increases are associated with insurance offered under the Affordable Care Act of 2010, also known as Obamacare. About 24mn Americans relied on the ACA for health insurance this year, but tax benefits subsidising the cost of ACA insurance expire at the end of this year. As a result, US insurance companies are worried they will lose healthy patients and will be stuck paying for care for people who need expensive care, KFF has reported.<\/p>\n

Centene did not respond to requests for comment. Its stock is down 52 per cent in 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free Your guide to what Trump\u2019s second term means for Washington,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126711,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392],"class_list":{"0":"post-126710","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-healthcare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}