People are leaving their employer-based health insurance plans for cheaper coverage as costs soar. Employees paid $6,850 on average towards coverage in 2025 - up nearly $1,300 from 2020, Bloomberg reported Wednesday. Jessica Balcerzak, a 33-year-old nurse in Buffalo, New York, told the outlet she saved more than $10,000 a year by dropping her employer’s family health insurance coverage in favor of a low-cost alternative option. The percentage of employees on employer-based healthcare plans fell from 64 percent in 2020 to 61 percent in 2025, healthcare research firm KFF reported last year. This drop is also a problem for companies - they rely on healthy people with fewer claims paying into group coverage to cover the cost of sick people with more claims. It typically results in sicker policyholders paying higher premiums , according to research university Johns Hopkins in a January report .…