Open Enrollment 2026: What to Know

Open enrollment is the one time each year when your benefits strategy becomes visible to every employee at once. It's also when the decisions you put off all year finally come due. A few things are worth your attention going into the 2026 season.

Costs are still rising

Medical costs haven't cooled off. Most employers are heading into renewals with increases that run ahead of wage growth, and the usual fix of shifting a bit more cost onto employees only goes so far when people already feel squeezed. The employers who handle this well don't guess their way through it. They know where their contributions, deductibles, and out-of-pocket maximums sit next to similar companies, so they can hold firm in some places and spend where it actually helps them compete.

The GLP-1 question

Nothing is generating more argument this year than GLP-1 coverage. The clinical case keeps growing, the prices are steep, and more employees are asking for access. There's no settled answer. Some employers cover these drugs with tight rules about who qualifies, some pay only for the diabetes use and leave weight loss out, and some tie coverage to a wellness program. The mistake is deciding in isolation. If you don't know how comparable employers are handling it, you're guessing.

Mental health parity is being enforced

Parity rules have real teeth now. If your behavioral health network or authorization process looks much different from the medical side, that's a real risk. Open enrollment is a good moment to confirm your carrier's comparative analysis is current and honest, not something filed away a few years ago and forgotten.

The transparency data is finally useful

The price transparency rules dropped an enormous amount of data on the industry, and for a while it was more interesting in theory than useful in practice. That's starting to change. The employers getting value from it are folding it into renewal conversations instead of treating it as paperwork.

Know where you stand before you renew

It comes down to one thing. The worst place to be at renewal is not knowing where you stand. Every year we watch employers take an increase, or freeze a contribution, with no real sense of whether they're generous, tight, or middle-of-the-pack for their industry and size. Look at real peer data first, then make the call. Half an hour with the numbers tends to change what you're willing to sign.

Open enrollment goes better when you prepare for it. The teams that treat it as a data exercise instead of a fire drill end up with plans that hold up, to employees and to finance alike.