Employees paid $6,850 on average towards coverage in 2025 – up nearly $1,300<\/a> from 2020, Bloomberg reported Wednesday. <\/a><\/p>\n Jessica Balcerzak, a 33-year-old nurse in Buffalo, New York, told the outlet <\/a>she saved more than $10,000 a year by dropping her employer\u2019s family health insurance coverage<\/a> in favor of a low-cost alternative option.<\/p>\n The percentage of employees on employer-based healthcare plans fell from 64 percent in 2020 to 61 percent in 2025, healthcare research firm KFF reported last year.<\/a><\/p>\n This drop is also a problem for companies – they rely on healthy people with fewer claims paying into group coverage to cover the cost of sick people with more claims. It typically results in sicker policyholders paying higher premiums<\/a>, according to research university Johns Hopkins in a January report<\/a>. <\/p>\n Worries over health insurance costs aren\u2019t limited to employer plans, either – they carry over into the Health Insurance Marketplace, the Obama-era coverage offered to those who can\u2019t get a policy through their employer.<\/p>\n Those with Marketplace coverage described their insurance as \u201cfair\u201d or \u201cpoor\u201d when it comes to their monthly premium and out-of-pocket costs for doctor visits, according to an April analysis by <\/a>KFF.<\/p>\n Options for cheaper health insurance are relatively sparse for those who can\u2019t afford employer or Marketplace coverage.<\/p>\n Short-term health insurance coverage can be cheaper than Marketplace plans but has drawbacks. They tend to have high deductibles, which means higher out-of-pocket costs for policyholders. They don\u2019t have to follow Affordable Care Act coverage rules, either, which means they can deny care for people with pre-existing conditions. <\/p>\n Then there are cost-share cooperatives, programs which pool together premiums and use them to pay for medical costs. However, there\u2019s often a minimum cost for coverage and pre-existing conditions may be excluded. <\/p>\n![\"Employee](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-1163303556.jpg\")
Employee participation in employer health insurance plans has dropped three percentage points from 2020 to 2025 (AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n![\"Families](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-656418168.jpg\")
Families that can\u2019t afford workplace or Marketplace health insurance have few affordable options for adequate coverage (AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n