What you need to know: Decoding this year’s health insurance rates
UC Davis Health is one of the two lowest-cost options
(SACRAMENTO)
You may have noticed increases in health care costs for all employees in this year’s Open Enrollment, because now through November 22, you can make changes to your benefits for 2025, including your health insurance.
Health insurance companies have been dramatically increasing premiums for the last several years, making record-breaking profits. UC Davis Health leaders agree that health insurance rates are too high and continue to increase in ways that are concerning.
UC overall works with health insurance providers to keep rates as low as possible, but unfortunately, rates are going up for companies across all industries. For example, CalPERS announced an overall weighted premium increase of 10.79% for 2025, and rate increases have been a topic in the news recently, with articles on the topic here and here.
This year’s premium increases are lower than last year, with an average increase of about 9% this year, as compared with increases of over 20% from health plans last year. Overall, UC pays an average of 85% of the cost of health premiums for one person ($21,000 a year in 2025) and over 80% of the cost of coverage for a family. For employees making less than $71,000 per year, UC pays 91% of the cost of coverage. By comparison, national averages for employer contributions are around 83% for a single employee and 71% for a family.
(For health insurance, please make sure you are viewing the ‘UC Davis rates,’ as these are much lower than UC health premiums overall. UC Davis Health leaders want to make health care coverage as affordable as possible for all UC Davis employees and more affordable for those earning lower salaries. For more information, visit health.ucdavis.edu/open-enrollment.)
While premium costs for dental and vision coverage will also increase in 2025, UC is able to offset these increases and continue to contribute 100% of the cost for eligible employees and their covered dependents next year.
UC Davis Health is one of the two lowest-cost options
In 2025, UC Davis will continue its support for the UC Blue & Gold health plan to ensure it is one of the lowest monthly cost options available, and the same monthly cost as Kaiser Permanente. (Represented employees' contributions will continue to align with union agreements.) More information about next year’s health benefits can be found here:
