Family health coverage through an employer now costs $28,303 a year on average, KFF reported October 22 in its 2026 Employer Health Benefits Survey. Covered workers pay $7,471 of that themselves through their paychecks, and the employer picks up the rest. Both figures rose again this year, and the worker share is climbing faster than pay.
Where the $28,303 comes from
KFF says the average annual premium for family coverage reached $28,303 this year, 5% higher than the $26,993 it measured in 2025. Single coverage averaged $9,804, up from $9,325. The survey is KFF’s 28th annual look at employer plans, built on 1,937 randomly selected employers with ten or more workers, with fieldwork by Davis Research from January to July.
Workers pay about 27% of the family premium and about 18% of the single premium, according to KFF, shares close to last year’s. The dollars moved more than the shares did. The family contribution of $7,471 compares with $6,850 in 2025, an increase of $621, or 9%.
Single coverage shows the same direction. Workers paid $1,672 on average for their own coverage this year, against $1,440 a year earlier. That is $232 more, roughly 16%, on a premium that rose about 5%.
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People covered through their own job or a spouse’s will meet these numbers in the open enrollment materials employers circulate this fall. The useful comparison is the family tier on that sheet against the $7,471 national average, and the deductible printed right beside it.
Premiums are outrunning paychecks
KFF’s five-year comparison puts the squeeze in plain numbers. Over the past five years the average family premium rose about 28%, the survey says, while wages grew 26.9% and consumer prices rose 24.4%.
Federal data point the same way for the latest year. The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Employment Cost Index shows private-industry wages and salaries up 3.1% in the 12 months through June, while benefit costs rose 3.8%. A 9% jump in the family contribution is well beyond either measure.
The split of the increase shows it. The average family premium rose $1,310 in a year, from $26,993 to $28,303, and workers absorbed $621 of that, about 47%, even though they pay 27% of the total. Employers took the other $689, a smaller share of the increase than of the bill.
That mismatch is why the employee share matters more than the headline premium. Employers carry most of the $28,303 on paper, but the worker’s slice is growing faster than the total, and it leaves the paycheck every pay period.
What workers face at the claims counter
Deductibles add to the bill. Among covered workers in plans with a general annual deductible, the average for single coverage is $1,955, KFF reports. Thirty-eight percent of covered workers face a single-coverage deductible of $2,000 or more.
Adding KFF’s two single-coverage averages shows the exposure. A worker’s $1,672 contribution plus the $1,955 average deductible comes to $3,627 in a year before the plan starts sharing the cost of most care, and the family version of that sum is much larger.
Out-of-pocket limits vary widely too. Virtually all covered workers are in plans with an annual cap on in-network cost sharing, KFF says, but among those with a single-coverage cap, 14% have a limit of $2,000 or less and 24% have one above $6,000. Two coworkers can carry very different worst-case years.
Plan design shapes those numbers. Half of covered workers, 50%, are in a PPO, and 29% are in an HSA-qualified plan, the high-deductible design paired with a health savings account. This year’s survey treats HSA-qualified plans as their own category.
Who offers coverage, and how to read the new rates
More employers are offering coverage. KFF found 67% of firms with ten or more workers offer health benefits this year, up from 61% in 2025.
Weight-loss drugs are one of the choices larger employers are making. Among firms with 200 or more workers, 18% cover GLP-1 agonists for weight loss, close to last year’s 19%, and the share rises to 33% at firms with 5,000 or more workers.
Employer size changes the bill as well. At firms with 10 to 199 workers, KFF found, covered workers pay a much larger share of the family premium than workers at firms with 200 or more.
The national averages are a yardstick, not a bill. A worker whose family tier costs less than $7,471 is under the average. One paying more should check what the plan returns for the difference, such as a lower deductible or a broader network.
Premium alone misleads. A plan that takes $1,000 less out of paychecks but carries a deductible $2,000 higher can cost more in a year with a hospital stay. The $1,955 average deductible, and the 38% of workers at $2,000 or more, show how common that tradeoff has become.
The question for each household is whether its yearly health cost, deductible included, is rising faster than the paycheck paying for it. If the answer is yes, the next question is what other help exists for the rest of the household budget.
Is the family tier outgrowing the paycheck?
When health premiums grow faster than pay, the rest of the household budget gets squeezed, and the programs that offset other bills, from Medicare Savings Programs to SNAP and heating help, only pay out after someone applies.
The Benefits Checklist is a downloadable guide that scans 11 benefit programs retirees most often miss, lists the 2026 income limits for each, and adds a 50-state phone directory plus a printable application tracker for keeping dates straight.
Scan 11 benefit programs with the 2026 income limits in this checklist →
More Financial Reading
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- 15 Ways Out of 22% Credit Card Interest
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
