Cost pressures push large employers to trim health benefits
Facing rising health-care costs, major employers are trimming or shifting benefits: Disney will drop health coverage for working spouses with access to their own coverage next year, Starbucks will end GLP-1 weight-loss coverage, and Deloitte is rolling back parental leave and IVF funding for some employees. Projections from Marsh, Aon, and the Business Group on Health point to ongoing high single-digit cost growth into 2027, with costs increasingly passed to workers via higher premiums or tighter plan designs. To cope, employers are pursuing cost-control measures like direct contracting, narrower networks, and new benefit approaches such as Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangements (ICHRA), signaling a shift in how costs are managed even as some maintain core benefits.