How much do employers pay health insurance brokers in total?
Updated includes the first 34,505 filings for plan year 2025, received by the DOL through September 24, 2026
U.S. employer health plans with 100 or more participants reported paying $6.9B in broker commissions and fees for plan year 2024, across 54,681 employers that disclosed any broker pay on Form 5500 Schedule A. The median employer that disclosed broker pay reported $72,628. In the first 34,505 filings for plan year 2025, received by the DOL through September 24, 2026, broker pay totals $4.2B; among the 31,520 employers that have filed both years it is up 3.4%.
Source: DOL Form 5500 and Schedule A, plan year 2024 (the first 34,505 filings for plan year 2025, received by the DOL through September 24, 2026); data built October 24, 2026. Employer health plans with 100 or more participants. Full methodology.
Does this include every employer?
No. Only plans with 100 or more participants file the full Form 5500 with Schedule A; insured plans under 100 participants are exempt, and governmental and church plans are outside ERISA. Self-funded employers' consulting fees paid outside an insurance contract also do not appear.
Commissions or fees?
Both. Schedule A line 2 reports commissions and fees separately for each contract; the total adds both. On 2024 filings, fees were a growing share for large employers that pay their broker directly rather than through the carrier.
How is the year-over-year figure computed?
On employers that have filed both years, so a half-complete year is never compared with a full one. The partial-year total is labelled with the number of filings and the date through which the DOL had received them.