In October 2026, India’s Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority launched NPS Swasthya. The report describes a dedicated pension account combined with family super top-up health insurance and access to contributions for eligible medical expenditure. It identifies cover for the subscriber, spouse and up to two dependent children. PFRDA’s site lists operational guidelines dated 18 September. Employers should check those guidelines and the chosen provider’s terms before implementing an

In September 2026, The Guardian reported that Starbucks workers responding to a Starbucks Workers United survey faced sharp increases in their health-insurance contributions for cover beginning on 1 October. More than 130 workers from union and non-union stores took part. The newspaper described individual employees who expected to drop coverage or considered taking another job because of the cost. The evidence is serious as testimony, but the survey is

In September 2026, the Hamilton Project published research on movements into and out of US direct care jobs in long-term care settings. The analysis reports that fewer than half of these workers remain in the same type of job in the following year. Workers leaving for other employment tend to obtain higher wages and greater access to employer-sponsored health insurance and pensions. Published on 29 September, the study concerns

A Brazilian arrangement with a January 2026 start In September 2026, Captive Review reported that DHL had brought approximately 25,000 employees in Brazil into its employee benefits captive through an arrangement with local medical insurer Unimed, facilitated by MAXIS Global Benefits Network. The arrangement became effective on 1 January 2026. That distinction between the date operations began and the date the case became public matters: the report describes an

EU social-security pass proposal could simplify evidence for mobile workers In September 2026, the European Commission proposed a Fair Labour Mobility package that includes a European Social Security Pass, or ESSPASS. Announced on 15 September, the proposal would allow people to request and receive social-security documents digitally, including the portable A1 document for posted workers and, later, the European Health Insurance Card. The package also addresses qualifications recognition and

A large-scale intervention in the individual health market The US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in September 2026 said it had cancelled about 315,000 Affordable Care Act policies covering roughly 760,000 people in August 2026. The agency cited unverified citizenship or immigration documentation and suspected improper enrolments. It also moved to exclude 569 brokers whose 2026 applications allegedly showed statistically implausible patterns or lacked essential applicant information. The

On 21 September 2026, the US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published preliminary laboratory payment data for 2027 and estimated that aligning Medicare rates more closely with private payer prices could save taxpayers approximately $1 billion a year. This is a proposal with a comment period, rather than an enacted schedule. Its significance for employer benefits lies in the relationship between public tariffs, commercial contracts and access

In September 2026, The Wall Street Journal reported that Vitruvian Partners was leading a 600 million dollar investment in Angle Health at a 2.7 billion dollar valuation. The transaction is expected to include 200 million dollars of new equity and a 400 million dollar secondary component providing liquidity to existing shareholders. Other participants named in the report include Town Hall Ventures, Blumberg Capital, Portage Ventures, PruVen Capital and Y

In September 2026, Reuters reported that CVS Health’s Aetna in the USA would introduce a single medical prior-authorisation process for cancer treatment, replacing separate approvals for components such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, imaging and some immunotherapies. The change began on 1 September for Medicaid members in eight US states and is scheduled to reach Aetna’s private and Medicare Advantage plans during the first half of 2027. Aetna says that providers

Ceded U.S. health insurance premium to the reinsurance market has soared to $203 billion in 2025, up from $59 billion in 2016—a jump of more than 300% over the decade, according to a new AM Best report published in September 2026. The report, Best’s Market Segment Report: Global Reinsurance – Health, attributes the growth to elevated high-cost claims, rising utilization, and persistent medical cost trends that are pushing U.S.

AXA Health International in March 2026 announced it had partnered with Alliance Insurance Corporation Limited and MIC Global Risks to launch its Global Executive Health Plan in Tanzania, marking a strategic expansion across Africa’s growing markets. The collaboration positions AXA as the international healthcare administrator and global network provider, while MIC Global Risks serves as exclusive distributor and Alliance Insurance acts as the licensed local insurer. This structure ensures

SHRM’s June 2025 employee-benefits analysis offers a benchmark for healthcare priorities and benefit design. It also illustrates why employers need to read survey questions and sample descriptions before turning a headline percentage into a market trend or a recommendation to change their own programme. Read the dated development The survey covered 3,969 HR professionals. Healthcare benefits were rated very or extremely important by 88%, and 97% reported organisational health

In November 2024, Germany adopted the Social Insurance Calculation Parameters Regulation for 2025, which took effect on 1 January 2025. It set the general pension-insurance contribution ceiling at EUR96,600 annually, or EUR8,050 monthly, and the general annual earnings threshold for compulsory health insurance at EUR73,800. These are historical 2025 values, not inputs for 2026 payroll. Label the parameters by function The regulation also sets a distinct health-insurance threshold under

In December 2023, the Guernsey Financial Services Commission issued a notice concerning the failure of GBG Insurance Limited. A separate update for TieCare policyholders said replacement cover was being finalised, rather than confirming completion. These are historical statements about a specific insurer and affected arrangements. For international medical programmes, they underline the need to verify the underwriting entity and the actual continuity position of each policy. Identify who carries

In December 2023, an email from Captive International promoted a medical stop-loss captive white paper. An accessible MSL Captives paper by Phillip Giles and Steven McFarland explains such structures, but the retrieved document is undated and could not be confirmed as the exact edition announced. It provides technical background for examining retained risk, collateral and exit obligations, rather than evidence of a new release or guaranteed employer savings. Establish

Zurich Global Employee Benefits Solutions (ZGEBS) in October 2022 announced that Sompo Himawari Life Insurance (SHL), the life insurance company of Sompo Holdings in Japan, joined the ZGEBS network. Alan Chua, Director, Customer & Distribution Management APAC, ZGEBS, commented that “[…] Zurich will now offer SHL’s “Insurhealth” solutions to Zurich’s multinational customers in Japan. […]”. The Insurhealth group product, by combining the original functions of insurance and healthcare, “provides

In October 2021, the National Bureau of Economic Research discussed research on buyer inertia and health insurance costs in its monthly Digest. The study examined how reluctance to change plans can affect competition and premiums. Its counterfactual findings concern a particular research setting, rather than a promised saving for an employer programme. The practical question for benefits teams is whether their renewal process makes a considered choice possible. A

Wearing a fitness tracking device could earn you cash from your health insurance company. At first, this sounds lucrative for the people who participate, and good for the companies, who want healthier insurance customers. But it’s not quite so simple.

Employer-provided health care benefits costs are expected to increase modestly around the globe in 2019, according to the 2019 Global Medical Trends Survey of medical insurers published in November 2018 by Willis Towers Watson (WTW). Insurers blame the high cost of medical technology and the overuse and overprescribing of services as major factors in escalating costs and caution that soaring pharmacy costs will become a significant factor over the

Broker APRIL UK in July 2018 announced that it is closing its private medical insurance (PMI) plans to new business and will be withdrawing from the UK PMI market. The announcement has been made following the decision by its insurance partner to stop bearing risks of its private medical insurance portfolio. As far as we know, the insurance partner in question is Malta-based Axeria Insurance, another member of the

Health insurance start-up Oscar Health in June 2018 announced it would sell Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) health insurance policies in six new markets as of 2019, adding three U.S. states – Florida, Arizona, and Michigan as well as three large metropolitan areas in Ohio, Tennessee, and Texas. Oscar offers individual products as well as a small group health plan targeted at small businesses of up to 100 employees, “Oscar

AXA in June 2018 announced it had sold its UK whole-of-market intermediary, The Health Insurance Group (THIG), to U.S. private equity firms Highbridge Principal Strategies and Madison Dearborn Partners. Acquired by AXA in 2008, The Health Insurance Group provides individual and corporate health and well-being products. Highbridge Principal Strategies and Madison Dearborn Partners already own several UK broking brands, including The Ardonagh Group. A “whole of market intermediary” is

U.S. health insurance start-up Oscar Health in March 2018 raised $165 million in a funding round led by Founders Fund to finance its expansion plans in four to five cities a year. This funding round was led by Brian Singerman and Founders Fund and includes 8VC, Verily Life Sciences, Fidelity, General Catalyst, Capital G, Khosla Ventures, Thrive Capital, and others. Oscar Health claims it has generated an underwriting profit

U.S. employer premiums rose an average of 6.6 percent in the first three fiscal quarters of 2017, according to the 2017 United Benefit Advisors (UBA) Health Plan Survey released on 26 October. This is a significant increase from the five-year average increase of 5.6%. Two states, Connecticut and New York, saw stunning increases of 24% and 14% respectively, while some states, such as Arizona and Washington, saw decreases of

Earnings rose in 2016 for the U.S. health insurance industry, with net income for those companies filing a health annual statement rising by 46% to $13.1 billion compared with $9.0 billion in 2015. This, according to an A.M. Best special report titled, U.S. Health Insurance Industry Earnings Up in 2016.  The report notes that net income was supported by a second year of improving underwriting income, which is owed

Healthcare reform in the U.S. provides for a steady stream of commentary, and it is sometimes useful to repeat some basic truths about … insurance.

Coverage of pre-existing conditions in the U.S. health insurance market – what is at stake in the 2017 healthcare reforms? Pre-existing conditions became the focus of debate on the American Health Care Act, which was narrowly passed 217-213 by the House of Representatives.