Eight Point Two Percent, Biggest Jump Since Two Thousand Three
Mercer took an early look at its national employer survey this August and almost did not want to look again. Total health benefit cost per employee is projected to rise 8.2 percent in 2027. That is the biggest jump since 2003. It is also the fifth straight year of elevated growth after a quieter decade. Without plan cuts, the same employers said the bill would climb eleven percent.
I am not shocked. Hospitals keep consolidating. Drugs keep getting more expensive. GLP-1s alone, Mercer says, account for a full percentage point of the trend. Artificial intelligence that helps clinics submit claims is producing more claims, and higher ones. The No Surprises Act was supposed to protect patients from surprise bills. The independent dispute process is now awarding providers more than anyone budgeted for, and that cost lands on the premium.
Fifty-nine percent of employers plan cost-cutting changes next year. Higher deductibles. Bigger paycheck deductions. Two-thirds of large employers already expect to push more of the premium onto workers. That is not a benefits strategy. That is a tax on showing up.
I am not anti-insurance. Keep a policy for the wreck. I am anti a product that grows faster than the raise for twenty-three years and still calls itself a benefit. We take care of patients for a flat monthly fee. No claim. No network. The number on the door is the number you pay.
Eight point two percent is a forecast. Two thousand three is a receipt. Direct care is the door that does not need either.
Source: www.mercer.com/en-us/insights/us-health-news/survey-health-benefit-costs-expected-to-jump-in-2027/
Eighty-Seven Dollars a Pill Versus Ten Cents
Same molecule. Same strength. Same bottle of one hundred.
On AndaMEDS this morning, brand Viagra 100 mg invoices at $8,742.58 for one hundred tablets. That is $87.43 a pill. Generic sildenafil 100 mg, same count: $9.59. Ten cents a tablet.
I am not shocked. The patent expired. The chemistry did not change. The sticker did.
This is Price of the week. Not an insurance rant. A wholesale invoice. Direct primary care clinics buy near cost and pass the number on. Keep a policy for the wreck. Do not buy a brand tax for a generic drug.
Eighty-seven dollars is a price. Ten cents is also a price. Pick the door with the smaller number.
Private Hospital Prices Up Thirty Percent
Private hospital prices rose thirty percent since 2019. Medicare rose twenty-one. Same buildings. Same beds. Different invoice, depending on who signs the check.
KFF pulled the Producer Price Index from April 2019 through April 2026. Private insurance grew forty-seven percent faster than Medicare over those seven years. Hospitals already take nearly a third of national health spending. From 2022 to 2024 they were forty percent of the growth.
I am not shocked. In most metros, one or two systems control three quarters of the inpatient market. When you are the only hospital, you are not a price. You are a premium.
I am not anti-insurance. Keep a policy for the wreck. I am anti a gap that widens while premiums eat the raise. We take care of patients for a flat monthly fee. No claim. No network. The number on the door is the number you pay.
Thirty percent is a price. It just only shows up when somebody bothers to compare the Medicare line.
Twenty-Six Percent Below the Benchmark
A Wisconsin shop in Stevens Point put direct primary care under their benefits four years ago. Anovia. Green Bay. Flat monthly fee. Thirty-minute visits. No RVU treadmill.
Phyx Innovation Labs pulled the claims. Gamber-Johnson's cost per member per year fell from $5,860 to $5,385. Down eight percent while the commercial benchmark climbed thirty-eight. They sit twenty-six percent below the market now. Last year the auditors counted $684,779 in verified savings across seven care lanes.
I am not shocked. When primary care is a membership instead of a claim, the rest of the system gets cheaper too. Surgery bundles forty-four percent under market. Imaging. Labs. Therapy. The doctor steers you to the good price because nobody is paying him to steer you to the expensive one.
I am not anti-insurance. Keep a policy for the wreck. Primary care is not a wreck. We take care of patients for a flat monthly fee. No claim. No network. You call. We see you. The number on the door is the number you pay.
Twenty-six percent is a price gap. It is also a doctor who had time.
Twenty-Eight New Patients From One Billboard
Twenty-eight new patients. One month. One Kansas City internist.
The Beacon just wrote her up. Myriam Ensling put her face on a billboard near Gregory and Troost. The line above the smile says it plain: No insurance? No problem. Last month she signed twenty-eight people who finally had somewhere to go.
I am not shocked. The system already collapsed for a lot of them. Premiums climbed. Deductibles turned into a second rent. Copays made a sore throat feel like a budget decision. They did not need another network brochure. They needed a doctor who answers the phone.
Down the street, a coffee shop on Troost covers direct primary care for its twenty-two employees. The owners could not swing full insurance. They could swing a flat monthly fee. A barista called it a luxury. That is what having a doctor used to be called before the claim form showed up.
The Direct Primary Care Alliance puts the Midwest average around eighty dollars a month. Unlimited visits. Text when something looks wrong. A panel of five or six hundred, not two thousand. Damon Heybrock said it the way I say it. Car insurance does not pay for your oil change. Keep a policy for the wreck. Primary care is the oil change.
I am not anti-insurance. Keep a policy for the wreck. I am anti a product that makes you ration the visit that keeps you out of the wreck. We take care of patients for a flat monthly fee. No claim. No network. The number on the door is the number you pay.
Twenty-eight is not a marketing metric. It is how many people found the door in one month because someone posted a real price.