All Posts By

Kevin Roche

The Healthy Skeptic is a website about the health care system, and is written by Kevin Roche, who has many years of experience working in the health industry through Roche Consulting, LLC. Mr. Roche is available to assist health care companies through consulting arrangements and may be reached at khroche@healthy-skeptic.com.

Sep 10 2025

Strive Health, which manages kidney care, raised a massive new $550 million in financing, some equity and some debt, to support growth.  The company has a comprehensive care model which supposedly will reduce costs will improving outcomes.

https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/health-tech/strive-health-lands-550m-investment-build-out-ai-tools-grow-multi-specialty-services?utm_medium=email&utm_source=nl&utm_campaign=HC-NL-FierceHealthPayer&oly_enc_id=4679D3169845B3Y
Sep 08 2025

Mercer has now also released its survey on health insurance premium increases expected for 2026.  Mercer anticipates average rises of 9% for employers, which they expect will be reduced to 6.5% by various cost-saving measures.  Many of those aren't actual cost-saving but cost-shifting, as employers force workers to pay more in deductibles and copayments.  These burdens fall heaviest on the middle and upper middle class families, who don't have access to gold-plated Medicaid coverage.

https://www.mercer.com/en-us/insights/us-health-news/employers-prepare-for-the-highest-health-benefit-cost-increase-in-15-years/