The National Association of Manufacturers this week released a report detailing manufacturers’ priorities for lowering healthcare and insurance costs, including 12 recommendations that policymakers can follow to protect businesses’ ability to continue to offer benefits.
In 2025, 95% of U.S. manufacturing employees were eligible for employer-sponsored health insurance, with 80% choosing to participate, NAM said.
Rising health care costs are a concern for manufacturers of all sizes, but higher premiums are disproportionately impacting small (fewer than 50 employees) and medium (50 to 499 employees) manufacturers. In fact, small 75% of small manufacturers and 78% of medium-size manufacturers rank healthcare costs as their No. 1 concern, NAM said.
“Ensuring the American people can access affordable health care and life-changing innovations will sustain employer-sponsored coverage, strengthen domestic manufacturing and support a healthier, more competitive American workforce and economy,” the NAM said.
The NAM report released Wednesday, A Prescription for a Healthy Workforce, made 12 recommendations for bringing down the cost of healthcare benefits. Some of these include:
- Further reining in pharmacy benefit managers by delinking PBM compensation from drug list prices in the commercial market;
- Restoring the 340B program to its original intent and thereby prohibiting hospital abuse of the program, which drives healthcare costs up for employers;
- Expanding Health Savings Accounts, encouraging the adoption of Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangements and codifying Association Health Plans;
- Securing patient access to needed prescriptions; and
- Preserving ERISA’s federal preemption and maintaining the current tax treatment of employer-sponsored insurance, so manufacturers can continue to offer health coverage without increasing taxes for themselves or their employees.
Go here to read the entire report.
