Heathcare coverage isn’t the easiest of subjects for business owners. Typically, New Jersey job creators report it as one of their top concerns – and costs – when running a business.  

The results of NJBIA’s 2025 Health Benefits Survey, however, do show some resolve among job creators who try to keep their employees covered amid the most challenging circumstances.  

In fact, 80% of respondents in the survey said their average per-covered employee healthcare cost increased from the company’s previous renewal period. 

Of those, 52% said their increase was between 1% and 10%, and another 42% said that increase was between a sizable 11% and 25%. 

Yet despite this, 82% of the 345 surveyed businesses said they offer healthcare coverage to their full-time employees – which is four percentage points higher than both the NJBIA 2018 and 2021 Health Benefits surveys ––– the latter of which was when employers were still very much in the throes of the pandemic. 

However, these numbers are still somewhat down from a decade ago. In the 2016 survey, 85% offered coverage and 87% offered coverage in the 2014 survey.   

“In order for employers to best position themselves from a point of strength and competitiveness, they need to have the best workers they can retain,” said NJBIA President and CEO Michele Siekerka. “We also know how much of a priority health coverage is for full-time workers. 

“At the same time, there doesn’t seem to be a reversal in health insurance costs on the horizon with medical inflation, improved technologies, an aging population and fewer insurance companies in the market.  

“So, it’s imperative that employers keep a keen eye on health costs, to try to find healthcare savings when they can or to try to reduce operating costs elsewhere to maintain healthcare coverage,” Siekerka said.  

Of the 18% of respondents that don’t offer healthcare insurance to full-time employees, several reasons were given as the reason why – including their company isn’t big enough (53%), cost concerns (37%); and an employee coverage mandate didn’t apply to them (26%).  

Of the companies that offered health insurance coverage to full-time employees, 16% of them also offer coverage for their part-time and/or temporary workers.  

COST CONCERNS

As a positive, 79% of respondents said they will continue to offer their workforce healthcare coverage next year.   

However, 9% said they will discontinue healthcare next year, while another 12% said they are undecided.  

For those who said they will drop healthcare coverage next year, 86% said it was the cost of coverage that was the main reason.  

Another 24% said they would drop coverage because not enough employees were willing to participate in a health plan – a sizable increase from the 14% who responded the same way in 2021.  

Additionally, 10% said they believe the Affordable Care Act penalty for not providing coverage is less expensive than making it available to their employees.  

Respondents were also asked to provide the average per member, per month cost of their company’s healthcare premiums for different plans as of February, 2025. 

For the employee-only (single) plans, 30% said the cost was $1,000 or more, with 13% claiming a monthly cost between $1,000 and $1,249 per member per month. 

For an employee and child plan, 53% said the cost was $1,000 or more, with 17% recording a monthly cost of between $1,250 and $1,400 per member per month. 

For an employee and spouse plan, 63% said the cost was $1,000 or more. Twenty-one percent of those respondents listed the cost as $2,000 or more per member per month. 

For a family plan, 71% said the cost was $1,000 or more, with 42% stating a monthly cost of $2,000 or more per member. 

PLAN SELECTIONS

Respondents were asked to pick the top two health plans their employees are currently enrolled in.  

Fifty percent of employees were enrolled in a Preferred Provider Plan (PPO) of employers offering health benefits followed by High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) at 25%, and Exclusive Provider Organization (EPO) and Point of Service plans with 13 % each. Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) came in with 9% of employees. 

In companies with 1-24 employees, PPOs led the way with 55%, followed by HDHPs (24%), EPOs (16%) and HMOs and POSs (13% each). 

For companies with 25 or more employees, both HMOs (64%) and HDHP (42%) led the way. 

VOLUNTARY BENEFITS

The number of NJBIA member companies offering additional voluntary benefits showed some remarkable consistency from the 2018 survey, but a decline from the previous survey four years ago.   

There is a bit of a resurgence in companies offering dental and vision benefits in the 2025 Health Benefits Survey. A total of 69% of respondents said they offer dental benefits, excluding ACA-required pediatric dental. 

That total is up from 58% who offered dental in 2021 and 2018, and the 63% who offered dental in 2016.  

Fifty-three percent said they offer vision benefits – a jump of 12 percentage points from the 2021 and 2018 surveys, and higher than the 47% percent who offered vision benefits in 2016.  

Prescription card discounts were offered by 18% of respondents, compared to 22% in 2021.  

Twenty-seven percent said they offer Health Savings Accounts, which are used for upfront health service payments or reimbursements. That’s up seven percentage points from 2021. 

Flexible Savings Accounts were offered by 25% of business, a bump from 21% in 2021. 

When asked what factors influence their company’s decision on which health benefits to offer, (allowing more than one response), 82% said cost to the company, 43% said employee demand and 34% said the offerings of competing employers. 

For businesses with 1-24 employees, 57% offered dental benefits and 37% offered vision coverage.  

About this Survey   

The NJBIA 2025 Health Benefits Survey was conducted online by Signet Research through the month of May, 2025. In total, management representatives from 345 New Jersey companies responded to the questionnaire, with a margin of error of plus or minus 5.3%.