Family Health Insurance Plans Now Cost Over $28,000 a Year

Good Thursday evening! Calley Means, a key figure in the Make America Healthy Again movement and top adviser to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., resigned from the Trump administration today. The resignation comes after Means reportedly began to feel "stymied" in his efforts to deliver on the MAHA agenda on food policy and related issues, including pesticide use. The resignation signals "a further erosion of a coalition that helped propel President Trump to power a second time," The New York Times reports.

Here's what else is happening with 12 days to go until the midterm elections.

Family Health Insurance Plans Now Cost Over $28,000 a Year

The cost of employer-based health insurance for a family rose 5% in 2026, reaching $28,303 on average, according to a new analysis by KFF, a nonpartisan health policy research organization.

Employers typically cover most of the cost of health insurance, but the employee share has been rising, too. Employees paid $7,471 a year on average for family coverage in 2026, a 9% increase from the year before. Over the last five years, the cost of the employee share for family coverage has risen 26%.

Annual deductibles - the amount you must pay before insurance kicks in - are rising, too. The average deductible for employees in all types of plans is $1,955 in 2026. Some employees at smaller firms have much higher deductibles, upwards of $3,000.

About 157 million Americans rely on employer-based health insurance, but the cost of coverage varies by company size. Workers at firms with 10 to 199 employees are paying $9,687 per year for family coverage on average this year, while those at firms with 1,000 to 4,999 employees are paying $6,186.

Regardless of size, the cost of employer-based health insurance has risen faster than inflation and faster than workers' earnings for the past three years.

The largest driver of rising premiums is the cost of treating patients at hospitals, but there are other factors in play as well. Insurers are still paying more for the GLP-1 weight-loss drugs, and employers say they are looking for ways to manage the cost of specialty drugs next year.

Affordability challenges: Matthew Rae, associate director of KFF's Program on the Health Care Marketplace, said rising costs are weighing on many workers. "There are real affordability challenges for the millions of Americans who get coverage this way," he said, per Bloomberg.

Healthcare costs haven't taken center stage in the same way that fuel prices have during the runup to the midterms, but Drew Altman, president and chief executive of KFF, says those concerns are significant nevertheless. "People tell us in polls that their health care costs are their top cost-of-living concern, tied with gas prices," Altman told The New York Times. "The fact that workers' share of premiums went up almost three times faster than inflation in 2026 helps explain why."

Anthony Wright, the executive director of Families USA, a liberal advocacy group focused on healthcare, said the KFF report shows why consumers are so worried - and angry - about healthcare costs. "They are mad at hospitals and drug companies and insurers for charging so much," Wright told the Times. "They are furious at Congress for not reining them in."

Quote of the Day

"It's really encouraging for rates that Treasuries are behaving like a safe-haven asset."

− Michael Chang, interest-rate derivatives strategist at Citigroup, quoted in a Bloomberg article detailing a rally in Treasuries, which had their best day in more than a year "as a deepening rout in AI-related shares and market turmoil in France combined to make US government debt the investment of choice for anxious traders."

As investors seek the safe haven of U.S. Treasuries, the yield on the benchmark 10-year note dropped below 5%, a key level, for the first time since September 23.

"For the first time in a while, Treasurys are enjoying haven status," Larry Holzenthaler, senior portfolio manager for fixed income at Catalyst Funds, told CNBC. "You have weakness in tech, an escalation of risk in the Middle East and higher oil. On a relative basis Treasurys start to look like the safe place to hide again in the short term."

Fiscal News Roundup

• Health Insurance Costs Keep Climbing for American Workers, a New Survey Finds – Associated Press
• Employers Shift Rising Health Care Costs Onto Millions of Workers – New York Times
• 'Unseemly and Unfortunate': Trump's Name Brands Millions of Amazon Refund Checks – Politico
• Elizabeth Warren Warns of 'Food Insecurity Crisis' From Snap Cuts and Higher Prices – CBS News
• Mark Zuckerberg Plots Deal to Pay Wealth Tax, Keep Meta Control – Bloomberg
• Trump Signs Housing Affordability Executive Order – Politico
• Trump's Approval Rating on Economy Hits All-Time Low as Midterm Looms: CNBC Survey – CNBC
• Defense Production Act Funds Steered to GOP-Backed Energy Projects – Roll Call
• Democrats Gear Up for Offensive Against Trump's Treasury – Politico
• Pentagon Plans 10 Years of F-35 Jet Orders – Wall Street Journal
• 'Unseemly and Unfortunate': Trump's Name Brands Millions of Amazon Refund Checks – Politico
• 'Go to Canada': Trump Touted Americans' Access to Cheaper Drugs. A New Rule Threatens It – KFF Health News
• Trump Dangles Rural Health Dollars to Push States to Change Hospital Laws – KFF Health News
• The Oil Market's 2027 Relief Hopes Are Fading Fast – Axios
• Trump Administration Plans to Begin Work on Massive Arch in Two Weeks – Washington Post

Views and Analysis

• Health Insurance Through Work Is Flailing. Time to Go 'Full Shark Tank'? – Elisabeth Rosenthal, Washington Post
• A Debt-Fueled 'Doom Loop' – Katrin Bennhold, New York Times
• The Debt Blob Will Destroy America – Deborah Collier, The Hill
• Five Ideas to Start Fixing Social Security's Finances – Richard Rubin and Kara Depena, Wall Street Journal
• The Top Issues in the Midterms – Amber Phillips, Washington Post
• Why Many Voters Are Unhappy With the Economy – Ben Casselman, Nour Idriss, Stephanie Swart and Edward Vega, New York Times (video)
• Trump's Midterm Promises Come With a Catch: The GOP Has to Win – Megan Messerly, Politico
• The Trump Administration Wants More Tax Charges. It's Going to Be Tough – Max Fillion, Wall Street Journal
• Childcare Costs Are Rising Faster Than Rent, Straining U.S. Family Budgets – CBS News
• A Food Crisis Could Follow the Energy Crisis – Greg Ip, Wall Street Journal
• As Lawmakers Scrutinize Pentagon Equity Deals, Pentagon Keeps Making Them – Zachary Groz, American Prospect
• Trump Wants an Inaccurate Census. The Consequences Would Be Pernicious – León Krauze, Washington Post
• You Pay When Your State Taxes Hospitals – Casey B. Mulligan, Wall Street Journal
• 2026 Economics Nobel Laureate Robert Hall Helped Lay Foundation for Pro-Growth Tax Reform – Garrett Watson, Tax Foundation