Products are selected by our editors, we may earn commission from links on this page.
Nurses, physicians, and pharmacists spend their days helping other people get care. This year, some of them are asking whether they can afford their own. Premium hikes have pushed some health care workers to skip checkups, drop parts of their coverage, or go uninsured altogether, according to reporting from Fortune and KFF Health News. More than 165 million Americans rely on employer-sponsored health coverage, according to Fortune.
A Doctor and a Pharmacist Go Uninsured
Joshua and Ashley Durham, a primary care physician and a pharmacist, run a family medicine practice in Boise. After launching their practice in late 2023, they bought marketplace coverage for themselves and their two children. This year, premiums for a similar plan rose several hundred dollars to nearly $1,600 a month. They dropped it and pay out of pocket from a $50,000 health savings account, KFF Health News reported.
A Nurse Practitioner Gives Up Dental Coverage
Samantha LeGault, a Boise nurse practitioner, saw the monthly premium go from $700 to $1,500 this year, KFF Health News reported. It covers her, her husband, and four of their children. She has Crohn’s disease and two daughters with medical conditions, so she said dropping coverage was not an option. She skipped dental insurance, prioritizing her children’s dental visits. She estimated about a fifth of her income goes to premiums.
Premiums Jump From $75 to $800
Jill Kordick, a 64-year-old retired health care executive in Norwalk, Iowa, saw hospitalizations financially devastate patients, KFF Health News reported. She said she would never opt out of insurance, even in the 16 months before Medicare. Enhanced tax credits let her pay $75 a month last year. This year her premium rose to $800 monthly. With a $10,000 deductible, she delayed a doctor visit for weeks over a sinus infection.
Marketplace Costs Climb After Credits Expire
Kordick’s premium jumped when the enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits expired at the end of 2025. Fortune reported that average monthly marketplace payments rose 58%, from $113 to $178. The average deductible climbed 37%, from $2,759 to $3,786. More customers picked plans that lower the monthly bill but raise what they owe when they need care. KFF Health News noted that subsidies remain for people with low incomes.
Coverage Gaps Among Health Care Workers
KFF Health News reported that health care workers are more likely than workers in other fields to have insurance. In 2024, 7% were uninsured, compared with 11% of adults under 65, and just 2% of doctors. According to the Census Bureau, 10.5% of health care support workers were uninsured in 2024, more than twice the 3.8% among practitioners and technical workers.
Practices Feel the Squeeze
Independent medical practices are both providers and employers, so the pressure on premiums lands on them twice. Jack Dillon, executive director of the Association for Independent Medicine, told Fortune his own practice faced a 22.5% increase. It had to decide whether to take on the cost or pass more of it to employees. He said the struggle is bigger this year than in previous years and “getting louder and louder.”
Employers Expect Another Increase
Employers are looking at another jump in health coverage costs. A Mercer survey of 1,800 employers projects health benefit costs per employee will climb 8.2% in 2027, the biggest increase since 2003. Two-thirds of companies with 500 or more employees plan to ask workers to pay a larger share of premiums. In June, private employers averaged $3.48 per employee hour on health insurance, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Wages, Benefits, and Tough Choices
Nick Stefanizzi is CEO of Northwell Direct, a health benefits provider for self-insured employers. He told Fortune rising costs “eat into money that could be invested in wages.” According to Dillon, some independent practices are weighing that tradeoff, dropping health benefits for higher wages. Fortune reported that other practices may cut benefits or consolidate staff. Dillon told KFF Health News some may offer only minimal plans.
Costs That Could Reach Patients
The 2024 National Nursing Workforce Study found about 15% of nurses held more than one job, Fortune reported. In American Nurses Association survey data gathered from June 2024 to September 2026, roughly 42% of working nurses said they worked over 40 hours a week. Their most common reason for the extra hours was needing more income. ANA President Jennifer Mensik Kennedy called rising insurance costs “a workforce, patient-care, and patient-safety issue.”