Health Populi July 18, 2025
For the third year in a row, medical cost trend — the expected increase of health care costs by health plans — will be 8.5% for group health insurance.
This contrasts with a low of 5.5% in 2022 when cost trend dipped coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic….then shot up to 8.0% the following year in patients’ healthcare catch-up mode.
Welcome to Behind the Numbers 2026, the annual medical trend report from PwC.
What’s continuing to drive up health care costs? PwC identifies 4 medical cost inflators, and 2 “deflators” (these being the introduction and use of biosimilars for prescribed therapies, and more tightly managing the cost of care through utilization management).
The inflators are:
- Hospital costs, compounded by...
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