As insurance premiums continue to rise, a new study finds that escalating healthcare spending is the leading factor behind the trend.
Researchers at Yale University analyzed data on premiums, healthcare costs and insurer markups from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services dated from 2011 to 2024, and found the average insurance premium increased by 78.4%, or $3,143, in that time frame.
By comparison, healthcare spending increased by $2,844, or 84.2% between 2011 and 2024, per the study. Insurer markups actually declined from 18.6% of premiums in 2011 to 14.9% in 2024.
Overall, the analysts found that healthcare spending accounted for 91% of the growth in average premiums. The study was published Sept. 4 in JAMA Health Forum.
The researchers said that scrutiny on premiums is natural as it's one of the frontline ways patients feel their healthcare costs. However, those premiums can mask the impact of healthcare spending to the typical consumer, they said.
"We must look at where the money actually goes, and this research shows that it is primarily driven by increasing healthcare costs," said Zach Cooper, Ph.D., one of the study's authors and director of Yale's Healthcare Affordability Lab, in a press release. "If we want coverage to be more affordable, we have to turn our attention to reducing the cost of care."
Premiums are on the rise across multiple insurance programs, the study notes. For example, the median individual income in 2024 was $63,360, while the median premium for individual employer-sponsored coverage was $8,941.
As of 2025, 40% of workers express concern about affording their insurance premiums as costs rise.
While the effects are more subtle than in other, highly-pressured segments like the Affordable Care Act's exchanges, the rise in employer premiums "creates a mechanical link" between increasing costs for healthcare goods and services and the labor market, per the study.
"A growing body of work suggests that increases in insurance premiums lead to reductions in employment and wages for workers outside the healthcare sector," the researchers wrote.
The study focuses on the large group employer market, and does not include data on self-funded employers, which cover a large swath of American adults. However, the Yale analysts said that trends related to premiums in the large group market tend to be mirrored for self-funded plans.
Future research, they said, should dive more into the self-funded space as well as examine the relationship between rising premiums and fees that payers may charge for administrative services.