When Americans break a bone, become ill, or need help in an emergency, healthcare workers are ready to help. However, when they need care themselves, some healthcare workers struggle to afford it, leading them to postpone checkups, cut out benefits, or even go without insurance.
Medical practices face the affordability crisis from both sides: They provide health care to Americans, but they are also employers that help pay for their employees’ health insurance. Rising premiums are forcing some independent practices to rethink how much they can cover, how much employees have to pay and whether they can even continue to offer insurance as such.
Jack Dillon, executive director of the Association for Independent Medicine, said Assets He has heard more concerns about insurance costs this year than he has in a long time. His own practice was faced with a 22.5% increase and had to decide whether to absorb the additional costs or increase their employees’ share of their premiums.
“I’ve heard there’s a bigger fight this year than in previous years, and it’s getting louder and louder,” Dillon said.
These pressures extend beyond medical practice. More than 165 million Americans rely on employer-sponsored health insurance, but it is becoming increasingly expensive for employers to provide. Healthcare costs per employee are expected to increase increase by 8.2% in 2027This is the largest increase since 2003 and the fifth consecutive year of increased growth, according to a Mercer survey of 1,800 employers. Two thirds of companies with at least 500 employees plan to increase the employee share of the bonuses.
“The reality is that this is eating up money that could be invested in wages,” said Nick Stefanizzi, CEO of Northwell Direct, which provides health benefits to self-insured employers Assets earlier this month.
That’s the same trade-off that Dillon says some independent practices are considering: eliminating health benefits and offering higher wages instead. Others may reduce services or consolidate staffing, potentially limiting their ability to treat and care for patients.
Health insurance already accounts for almost a quarter of private employers’ spending on social benefits. Employers paid average $3.48 per employee hour towards health insurance in June A total of $14.07 was spent on social servicesaccording to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Caregivers make compromises
For some healthcare workers, these pressures have led them to leave hospitals and clinics and move into their own homes.
Samantha LeGault, a nurse from Idaho, saw the monthly premium for coverage for herself, her husband and their four children jump from $700 to $1,500 this year, she said KFF Health News. Since LeGault has Crohn’s disease and two of her daughters also have illnesses, giving up health insurance wasn’t an option. Instead, she had to forego dental care in order to prioritize her children’s dental appointments over her own.
“I know how the clinics work, I’m an expensive patient,” LeGault said KFF Health News. “At the end of the day, healthcare in the United States is a business.”
In Idaho, too, a family doctor and his pharmacist made the opposite calculation. Joshua and Ashley Durham, who run a family practice, canceled coverage for themselves and their two children after premiums for a similar plan rose several hundred dollars to nearly $1,600 a month. according to KFF Health News. The family pays for care out of pocket through a health savings account that contains $50,000.
Working in healthcare does not guarantee insurance coverage. In 2024, 10.5% of health care workers were uninsured, more than double the 3.8% rate for doctors and technical professionals, the study found Census Bureau. The uninsured rate among all adults ages 19 to 64 was 11%.
The costs of taking out insurance yourself have also risen sharply this year. The Enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits expired at the end of 2025, and marketplace customers’ average monthly payments are no longer possible increased by 58%from $113 to $178. The market’s average deductible also rose 37%, from $2,759 to $3,786, as more consumers chose plans that traded lower monthly payments for higher costs when they needed care.
More than a household expense
The American Nurses Association warned that the consequences of rising costs could ultimately affect patients. About 15% of nurses reported working more than one job in the 2024 National Nursing Workforce Study. In separate ANA survey data collected from working nurses between June 2024 and September 2026, about 42% reported working more than 40 hours per week. The most commonly cited reason for working long hours or overtime in this group was the need for higher income.
“Rising health insurance costs are more than just a budget issue for healthcare workers,” ANA President Jennifer Mensik Kennedy said in a statement Assets. “They are a workforce issue, a patient care issue and a patient safety issue.”
The association said nurses who find themselves forced to add shifts or jobs to keep up with premiums and other medical costs may suffer greater fatigue, stress and burnout – increasing pressure on a profession already facing a labor shortage.
For Dillon, the hardest part is what these decisions could mean for the people who care for patients. “You try to take care of the people who help you take care of the patients,” he said.