California’s affordability crisis has worsened over the past decade with skyrocketing gas prices, a housing and homelessness crunch, and other living costs on the rise — and what Californians are paying for health insurance is getting worse, too, according to new national data.
The Golden State saw a staggering 45.8% jump in the amount of annual employee contributions to their health insurers over a decade, according to data compiled by NiceRX.
That’s the sixth highest jump in the nation between 2014 and 2024 for family coverage plans that people obtain through their jobs.
“At a time when families are already struggling with rising healthcare, housing, and grocery bills, California should be focused on lowering costs, not adding to the financial burden on working families,” State Sen. Tony Strickland (R) told the California Post.
The California Association of Health Plans told The Post that a good portion of California’s high healthcare costs can be attributed to state policies.
“One factor that may be impacting the high employee contribution rate could be decisions that California made over the past decade, including adopting a relatively richer benefit package than other states,” it said. “California lawmakers also continue to pass health care mandates each year that add to premium costs. Just this year alone, $170 million in new health care mandates were enacted into law.”
Only D.C., South Carolina, West Virginia and Alaska had larger contribution increases, with Hawaii in the top spot at a 50.2% jump in costs.
However, among the top ten states with the largest increases, California by far had the most expensive premiums at cost value — at $9,148 in employee contributions for work-sponsored family plans in 2024.
In 2014, it was just under $5,000.
Alaska, a mostly rural state, had the next most expensive contributions at $8,409.
The big jump combined with high costs means the Golden State is actually the fourth highest when it comes to health insurance stress, the rankings said, behind Alabama, South Carolina and Florida.
Relief won’t be coming anytime soon for Californians.
This year, lawmakers passed two new California taxes described by one taxpayer advocacy group as “the largest tax increase in state history.”
One of those taxes would extend a levy on health care providers to potentially generate roughly $2 billion a year to help fund Medi-Cal. But insurers are likely to foist the extra costs onto rate payers, according to policy experts.
“The $1.5 billion health care (MCO) tax approved by the governor this year will only further increase the burden on California’s working families,” the California Association of Health Plans said, adding that it has joined other medical groups to file a lawsuit against the tax.
The health care tax has been estimated to increase premiums by $400 a month for a family of four because insurers will pass on the cost, the association warned.
California’s health care costs have been unusually high for many reasons, according to an analysis published last year by the California Health Care Foundation.
About $73 billion a year in the state goes to waste on red tape, “excessive profits” and serious illnesses that could have been caught early by preventative care, the Foundation said.
Health care premiums for job-based insurance have grown nearly twice as fast as wages in California, the Foundation discovered. The average premium for a family health plan through job-based insurance in California was over $28,000 in 2025.
