LVBCHC: 2025 saw rising health insurance costs and new treatment options

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“The cost of health care is on everyone’s mind,” said Carl Seitz, president of the Lehigh Valley Business Coalition on Health Care. 

He said while health care costs have been rising for a long time and have long been a concern to business owners, those costs became a particular pain point in 2025. 

He noted that in 2025 the average cost for family coverage for health care reached around $27,000 total, making a significant impact on costs to both the company and employees, who saw dramatic increases in their contribution.   

Employers – especially those who self-insure – were also faced with whether or not they should provide coverage for new care options that can be helpful, but costly. 

“The biggest need is GLP-1 drugs for weight loss,” Seitz said. 

While the cost of such medications can be high, their increased popularity has helped decrease the cost and is making more insurers consider the benefits of covering such medications. 

The question is does the initial cost of the drugs offset the long-term costs of treating the negative health effects obesity can have on the body? 

Seitz said it is a question that everyone is asking, noting that a recent obesity learning collaborative that the LVBCHC held this year had record attendance. 

He said there has also been attention on women’s health issues ranging from covering fertility treatment to policies regarding women experiencing menopause. 

All of the added costs are making employers take a closer look at their health insurance coverage. Rising costs, Seitz said, has led many employers to drop existing plans in search of lower-cost coverage. That caused a great deal of plan jumping in 2025, a trend he expects to continue. 

On the horizon, Seitz said there are some pretty amazing treatments coming that can cure what have been life-long diseases. But they come at a very high cost. 

He said there are currently between 30 and 40 different cell and gene therapy treatments on the market that can cure diseases like Sickle Cell Anemia and Huntington’s Disease. 

Some of these new treatments can cost as much as $1 million to $3 million dollars – a large upfront cost that is prohibitive despite the overall long-term cost of caring for treatment of the diseases. 

“They’re life changing, but for an employer it’s a huge bill,” Seitz said. 

Seitz said more such treatments will be coming to market in the next few years, treating many more serious diseases. That will make it an issue that eventually every insurer and employer will need to address. 

“For example, what if a company pays for that expensive treatment and then the employee leaves the next year?” Seitz asked. 

New payment models and financing options are being developed to help address those issues and make such treatments more affordable for everyone. Seitz said he expects this to be a large topic of conversation for his organization and employers heading into 2026.