
Many small companies are expected to face double-digit hikes to their health insurance premiums next year — increases that would add to the broader strain on the take-home pay and budgets of millions of American workers, families, and small business owners.
Health insurance brokers, consultants, and benefits advisers told STAT that health care premiums for a lot of smaller employers likely will rise by at least 10% to 15% for 2023. The pandemic is contributing to that, creating headaches for insurance actuaries who are trying to estimate how much care people will get while a deadly virus keeps circulating.
But Jenny Chumbley Hogue, who runs her own health insurance brokerage in Texas, said double-digit increases are now “what small employers should always expect on an annual basis.”