Health-Care Costs for Large Employers Surged 8% in 2021

Health-care costs for employers shot up 8.2% in 2021, the most in eight years, after not increasing in 2020, according to a survey released Tuesday of 135 large employers that cover more than 18 million Americans.

Employers reported health-care cost increases of about 5% in recent years before the pandemic, Ellen Kelsay, president and CEO of the Business Group on Health, said in a press briefing. The zero percent increase reported for 2020 was an anomaly due to deferred and missed care as a result of the pandemic, she said. “We’ve also seen that severity of conditions have gotten worse, ...