Health insurance costs have soared for workers and employers.
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Workers on family health insurance plans paid $7,471 for premiums in 2026, a 9% increase from 2025.
Costs are even higher at smaller businesses: Workers there pay nearly $10,000 for family premiums.
Rising premiums have outpaced wage growth, and are only expected to increase more in 2027.
It's costing families nearly $7,500 a year for health insurance — and more increases are looming.
A 2026 health benefits survey from KFF found that workers on a family plan paid an average of $7,471 a year in premiums — a 9% increase from 2025. And that's just the worker contribution — when accounting for employer contributions, family plan premiums totaled $28,303 in 2026, a roughly 5% increase from 2025.
That's a hefty price for both workers and their employers, and even more acute for workers at smaller businesses: KFF's survey found that at firms with fewer than 200 employees, they paid nearly $10,000 toward family premiums in 2026. Smaller firms are often more beholden to insurance companies, since they don't wield the same bargaining power as larger firms.
Mounting health costs might be part of why consumers feel so gloomy: As wages have increased, insurance premiums have risen even faster. While wages increased 3.7% year-over-year for workers — which might look like a nice pay bump on paper — worker-paid premiums outpaced that salary growth, rising by 9%.
And over the past few years, how much workers pay for health plans has eaten up a larger share of their household income. For workers across all firms, their premium costs amounted to nearly 8% of real household median income in 2025.
Are you worried about rising health insurance costs, or already paying thousands out of pocket? Share your story with this reporter at jkaplan@businessinsider.com.
All of that comes as employers and workers brace for open enrollment season, and more hikes loom: An analysis from PricewaterhouseCoopers, based on a survey of health plan actuaries, projects that commercial healthcare group costs will rise by 9% in 2027. Similarly, Aon, an insurance management firm, found that employer healthcare costs are projected to climb by 9.5% next year without any cost mitigation measures — meaning before firms figure out how to pass some of those mounting costs on to their workers.
For workers and firms, that means a tighter financial squeeze: Companies are paying more to cover their workers, but costs are likely still outpacing wages. At the same time, firms might not be able to provide higher wages as care costs climb. It means that everyone is paying more, and nobody's feeling good about it: An Ipsos/Axios poll found that 69% of Americans say a 10% increase would negatively impact their household finances, with 30% saying it would have a major negative impact.
Federal authorities conducted predawn raids across Southern California on Thursday, busting suspected fraudsters, including a cardiothoracic surgeon, accused of stealing nearly $2 billion through sham substance abuse programs, unnecessary surgeries and phony hospice care.
In total, 15 people, including six medical professionals, were charged over $1. 8 billion in fraudulent claims submitted to government and private health insurance programs, the Justice Department said.
"These charges include the largest sober home fraud scheme the Department has ever prosecuted and a scheme involving unnecessary invasive procedures that was detected through data analytics," said Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division.
"Our message is simple: if you steal health care dollars from the American taxpayer or abuse your position to harm patients, we are coming for you — and the data will lead us to you."
Among the defendants are Dr. Harold Tabaie, 78, of Anaheim, a cardiothoracic surgeon, and his business partner, Hany Malek, 61, a Tarzana chiropractor.
Both are charged in an alleged $135 million scheme to bill Medicare for medically unnecessary atherectomies, invasive arterial procedures using a bladed catheter to clear plaque.
Prosecutors allege Malek posed as a medical doctor to diagnose patients with arterial disease and recommend atherectomies, even though the patients did not have the condition.
Tabaie then performed the procedures, sometimes repeatedly on patients for whom previous operations had already failed, according to officials. Authorities noted that several patients suffered extreme pain and discomfort as a result.
Malek also faces charges for allegedly submitting fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan applications in 2021. He allegedly fabricated a 25% revenue loss for his business to secure loan funds, which he then spent on personal expenses, family credit cards, other ventures and rare coins.
In a separate case, Nathan Young, 39, and his father, David Young, 71, were charged with operating a $1.6 billion substance abuse scam.
Authorities allege the father-son duo trafficked drug addicts from across the nation to dozens of Los Angeles rehab centers. Federal prosecutors said the vulnerable patients were recruited by "body brokers" Honey Phipps, 42, and Cody Phipps, 36, both of Greenville, Texas.
Body brokerage is the illegal practice of receiving kickbacks to refer insured individuals to specific rehab facilities. Once patients arrived, no actual treatment was provided.
Instead, the Youngs allegedly recycled patients through their facilities to continuously bill insurance companies, even ordering staff to drug patients with sedatives to "knock them out" if they attempted to leave.
The duo also allegedly offered drugs to patients, cut them off from communication with family members, prevented them from accessing their belongings and physically blocked them from leaving the facilities to continue billing their insurance policies.
When Nathen Young was informed that a patient wanted to leave detox so he could smoke marijuana, Young instructed that the patient should be given what he wanted, off-site from the detox, to keep him there, prosecutors said.
"It is especially egregious when doctors and other health care professionals, who pledged to do no harm, resort to petty greed and criminality," said First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli. "Every dollar drained out of our private and public health insurance systems is one less dollar available to those who truly need it."
The sweep also targeted several other major healthcare fraud schemes across the region. In one instance, defendants were charged with stealing more than $140 million by falsely certifying non-terminally ill patients for hospice care.
In a separate prescription fraud scheme, Christina Mareik, 61, of Whittier, was charged for her role in allegedly submitting thousands of bogus prescriptions for high-reimbursement generic drugs to Medi-Cal, California's Medicaid program.
Additionally, Dr. Hassan Badday, 48, of Los Angeles, and Dr. Robby Ayoub, 52, of Huntington Beach, were charged with taking illegal kickbacks from a Houston laboratory marketer in exchange for ordering unnecessary Medicare genetic tests.
FIRST ON FOX: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz is taking Americans inside the Trump administration's war on healthcare fraud in a new documentary highlighting massive Medicare schemes, suspected hospice scams and allegations of organized crime involvement.
The 27-minute film, "War on Fraud," first obtained by Fox News Digital, follows Oz across the country as he spotlights alleged fraud schemes targeting taxpayer-funded health care programs and details the administration's efforts to crack down on those responsible.
"All these programs come back to one basic issue: Fraudsters and criminals don’t give a s--- about you. They want your money, and they will walk all over your health, sacrifice your life and betray society’s trust to get your hard-earned money," said Oz in the video.
The documentary follows Oz across the country as he investigates suspected fraud involving Medicare, Medicaid, hospice care and other programs, with appearances from HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and CMS Deputy Administrator Kim Brandt.
Fox News Digital accompanied Oz Tuesday as he confronted workers at New York City senior day care centers suspected of questionable Medicaid billing practices during a sweeping federal fraud investigation.
More than 80 New York City providers received warning letters from CMS over questionable billing practices as part of a broader operation involving the FBI, HHS-OIG, NYPD and other agencies.
"FBI New York, along with multiple other law enforcement agencies are conducting law enforcement activity in the area of Queens, Staten Island, Brooklyn and other locations around New York City in connection with ongoing federal investigations," an FBI spokesperson said of the crackdown.
Oz flagged what he described as a series of irregularities, including low attendance despite high Medicaid billing, questionable wheelchair transportation charges, seniors entering without signing in, inconsistent attendance claims and sign-in sheets containing future-dated entries.
The crackdown comes as CMS is pulling back the curtain on its broader war on fraud, releasing a new documentary that takes viewers inside the agency’s efforts to track down schemes siphoning taxpayer dollars from America’s healthcare programs.
In one segment of the film, Oz highlights hospice care as a hotbed for potential fraud, pointing to the Los Angeles area, where he says roughly 2,000 hospice providers operate, a concentration he argues has raised serious concerns about fraudulent billing.
Oz claims in the documentary that Russian organized crime groups are involved in some suspected hospice fraud operations, alleging that unsuspecting patients are being enrolled in hospice care under false pretenses.
He claims the schemes involve falsely declaring patients terminally ill and misleading them into enrolling in hospice care, potentially limiting their access to treatment for conditions classified as terminal while allowing fraudulent operators to bill Medicare for services under false pretenses.
Minnesota has become a major focus of the Trump administration's broader crackdown on government benefits fraud following a series of high-profile scandals involving taxpayer-funded programs.
Oz said Minnesota's $250 million "Feeding Our Future" scandal helped intensify the administration's focus on large-scale fraud, pointing to a case that erupted into the national spotlight in 2022 and has since produced a wave of federal convictions.
The White House Task Force on Fraud, led by Vice President JD Vance, has joined Oz in a media blitz highlighting alleged scams as the administration ramps up its crackdown on corruption in taxpayer-funded programs.
The documentary highlights one of the largest alleged Medicare fraud schemes in U.S. history, involving $3.7 billion in fraudulent billing claims tied to medical equipment companies operating in Delray Beach, Florida, according to federal prosecutors.
Federal prosecutors allege the scheme involved billing for medical equipment patients never requested or needed, and the accused ringleader fled the U.S. before being captured in Turkey and returned to South Florida to face federal charges.
The documentary also shows Oz during an earlier visit to Flushing, Queens, where he describes a cluster of businesses — including a social adult daycare center, pharmacy and medical center — as a "clubhouse for crooks," alleging the businesses are part of a fraudulent billing operation.
Oz says they recruit seniors, get them in, game the system and they use their ID numbers to charge everybody, "which means they are charging you."
A Canadian man battling a debilitating neurological disease told Fox News Digital that hospital staff repeatedly raised the possibility of medically assisted death while he was fighting for the home care he says he needs to survive.
Roger Foley, who has spinocerebellar ataxia, told Fox News Digital in a recent interview that the conversations began in 2016 at Victoria Hospital, part of the London Health Sciences Centre in Ontario, where he says he has remained hospitalized for years while seeking a self-directed home-care arrangement.
In a July 7, 2026, letter obtained by Fox News Digital, Foley's attending physician said he could safely leave the hospital if the Ontario government authorized an individualized home-care arrangement.
"By any reasonable clinical standard, you could be discharged from our hospital if you had adequate support at home," wrote Dr. George K. Dresser, an attending internal medicine physician at London Health Sciences Centre.
Dresser said Foley has been medically stable for much of his prolonged hospitalization, despite suffering hospital-acquired infections, and argued that conventional home-care programs have failed to accommodate his complex medical needs.
"You have been at London Health Sciences Centre because the unique needs that you have cannot be met by existing programs in the community," the physician wrote.
Dresser described Foley as "a square peg in a round hole," arguing that the hospital's standardized approach to care is poorly suited to a patient who requires consistent caregivers and highly individualized assistance.
The physician also suggested that keeping Foley hospitalized may be unnecessarily expensive for Ontario's healthcare system.
"A community-based, self-directed arrangement would in all likelihood cost substantially less than continued acute admission, while delivering far better-matched care," Dresser wrote.
He urged Ontario's Ministry of Health to authorize funding that would allow Foley to recruit, train and manage his own personal support workers, potentially ending his yearslong hospitalization.
Foley alleged that assisted dying was raised again during a disputed discharge process in 2017, when he says he was threatened with daily hospital charges of approximately $1,500 if he did not accept the care arrangements being offered.
"I don't want to die," Foley told Fox News Digital, describing his determination to return to his apartment with caregivers of his choosing.
Foley also alleged that the hospital removed lighting accommodations for his neurological condition in May 2025, making it difficult for him to receive care and consume food and fluids.
Foley said the lighting dispute is particularly serious because his neurological condition makes him sensitive to certain wavelengths of light, including those emitted by fluorescent fixtures.
For years, he said, the hospital accommodated his condition with amber-spectrum lighting that allowed caregivers to assist him without triggering his symptoms.
But in May 2025, Foley alleged the hospital withdrew those accommodations and began requiring staff to provide care under fluorescent lighting.
He claimed the change has made it increasingly difficult to receive routine assistance, including help with eating and drinking, because he must wear large, heavy protective goggles that place additional strain on his already compromised neck.
Foley said he has sometimes relied on personal support workers from outside the hospital to help him consume fluids and that financial limitations have prevented him from arranging enough outside assistance to meet all his needs.
He further alleged that some hospital employees have been instructed not to provide care unless fluorescent lights are turned on, even though he says other staff members have been able to assist him using the amber lighting without difficulty.
Foley also claimed hospital personnel began asking him questions about suicidal thoughts again around the time his lighting accommodations were withdrawn. Unlike his earlier experiences, he said he refused to engage in those conversations because he no longer trusted the hospital's intentions.
If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
He said he does not refuse to discuss his mental health in general, and is not opposed to mental health assessments or receiving appropriate mental health support. However, he said previous experiences with hospital staff have made him wary of engaging in such discussions, especially because he said medical assistance in dying (MAID) had previously been raised as an option.
The allegations mark the latest chapter in what Foley described as a nearly decade-long struggle to obtain the kind of care that would allow him to leave the hospital and return to his own home.
Despite his prolonged hospitalization, Foley said he has never given up his apartment, which he described as accessible and equipped with a ceiling lift to assist with his mobility needs.
"I have my own apartment. I still pay all my bills," he told Fox News Digital.
"The last 10 years I haven't given up my apartment and I have wonderful community [personal support workers] that are ready to start working for me as soon as I get the self-directed funding," Foley said.
Self-directed funding primarily refers to the Direct Funding (DF) Program for adults with physical disabilities and Family-Managed Home Care for broader home care services.
Under such a model, Foley explained, patients with disabilities would have greater control over choosing and managing their caregivers rather than relying exclusively on agencies selected through the provincial home-care system.
Foley argued that this would provide more consistent and safer care, particularly for patients with complex medical needs who require caregivers familiar with their individual conditions.
He said his physicians have supported his efforts to obtain alternative home-care arrangements, but he has been unable to secure the funding necessary to put his plan into action.
Foley said that the existing system has left him caught between remaining hospitalized indefinitely and accepting community-care arrangements he believes would place his health at risk.
"I'm not giving up," he said. "I don't want to die, my daughters know I don't want to die, my physicians have always been very explicit and direct that it's not safe to put me in that type of close model that I need direct funding."
In the letter from Dresser, Foley's attending physician, he writes in part, "I am therefore advocating that the Ministry to consider authorizing an individualized, self-directed funding arrangement that would enable you to be discharged from acute care and to arrange and direct your own care in the community. I am very willing to meet with Ministry staff, to provide whatever clinical documentation is required, and to work collaboratively on the design and safeguards of such an arrangement."
Before his illness progressed, Foley said he had built a career in banking, worked as a television host and comedian, and even trained as a professional wrestler.
He described earning recognition for his work before his deteriorating health eventually forced him to leave his career and go on long-term disability.
But Foley said he has continued looking for ways to contribute to society despite his physical limitations.
He is now involved with a project called "Bring Roger Home," which he said is working with a nonprofit organization to raise money for the care he needs to return to his community.
The effort also includes releasing music he recorded years earlier, with proceeds intended to support his home-care needs and eventually help other people facing similar circumstances.
One of the songs, "Limitless with Limitations," reflects the philosophy he said helped him come to terms with his condition.
"Just because you're not the person that you were doesn't mean that the person you are can't be limitless and achieve positive things and goals," Foley said.
He also urged people living with disabilities or chronic illnesses not to lose hope, even when their medical circumstances become overwhelming.
"Don't give up who you are at your core and believe in yourself," he said.
Foley said his ultimate goal remains unchanged: to return home, reconnect with family and friends, and live as independently as his condition allows.
His experience has also shaped his opposition to Canada's Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) system, which he argues cannot be adequately safeguarded when patients face serious gaps in medical care and social support.
According to the BBC, Canada’s MAID law, which legalized euthanasia in 2016, is responsible for one in every 20 deaths in Canada.
Foley contended that patients should have meaningful access to treatment, disability assistance and home-care alternatives before assisted death is considered.
For him, the central issue is not whether he has the ability to end his life, but whether he can obtain the assistance necessary to continue living it.
"Even in the darkest times," Foley said, "you can still find a light at the end of the tunnel to go towards."
Fox News Digital reached out to London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC), which operates Victoria Hospital, Ontario Health atHome, the Ontario Ministry of Health, and Dresser, Foley’s physician, for comment but did not immediately receive responses.
Cheshire Independent Living Services declined to comment.
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