The Sidecar Health Blog

For decades, employers have faced a frustrating pattern: year after year, healthcare premiums rise unpredictably — often outpacing inflation and budget forecasts. Every renewal season feels like a negotiation with no leverage, leaving benefits managers forced to choose between absorbing costs, passing them onto employees, or cutting back on benefits. It’s a cycle that’s not only unsustainable but also demoralizing for HR teams trying to do right by their employees and the business.

The U.S. healthcare system is meant to serve its people, yet millions of Americans struggle with rising costs, limited access, and a system that feels more burdensome than supportive.

Getting medical care shouldn’t feel like a battle, but for many Americans, insurance denials and prior authorizations create unnecessary roadblocks. A new research report uncovers the alarming extent of this issue — and what can be done to fix it.

For years, employers have been told that meaningful change in health insurance is risky —that employees won’t understand it, won’t want it, or won’t engage with something that looks different from the status quo. But clinging to the status quo has become the bigger risk. It has become a shared burden that drives higher costs and worse experiences for everyone involved.

While drug pricing may seem like a catchy political issue in an election year, the current political gridlock removes any opportunity for true comprehensive reforms. Costs continue to rise, and patients continue to struggle to access care they can afford.

Employer-sponsored health insurance coverage is expensive. Fully insured group premiums have steadily increased for decades, impacting small, medium, and large businesses alike. In 2023, the average annual premium for these plans was $23,968—an increase of more than $1,000 from 2022. As inflation climbed in 2023, both single and family premiums increased by seven percent. Purchasers have been hit with ever-increasing premiums that appear to secure less and less coverage. Product strategies that allow the consumer to participate in directing where healthcare dollars are spent have been attempted but fall short due to the lack of pricing transparency from providers.

It’s clear we need innovative options for health insurance. More than 70 percent of U.S. adults report the current healthcare system is failing to meet their needs, medical debt is the leading cause of personal bankruptcy, and employers are facing spiraling healthcare costs each year.