Healthcare survey 2025: Insights from our expert

Published on December 8, 2025

In 2025, group insurance plans have been evolving in the context of inflation and challenging economic conditions, which are undermining the financial health of plan members. The Benefits Canada Health Survey 2025¹ underscores the importance of concrete solutions to support total wellbeing.

Daily challenges

Survey results show that mental, financial and physical health issues—three pillars of total wellbeing—affect both organizations and their staff.

Mental health issues highlight the crucial role group insurance plans can play. According to the survey, 39% of plan members experience high daily stress, rising to 68% among those whose mental health coverage is exhausted.

Interrupting care due to lack of financial support reduces its benefits: 25% of plan members rate their financial health as poor, compared to 21% last year, highlighting the need for tailored financial support.

Adapting solutions to evolving needs

Group insurance plans can meet diverse needs through flexible, personalized and prevention-focused solutions. To illustrate how these solutions can work in practice, I’ve analyzed three themes: women’s health, weight management and disability/chronic illness.

In terms of women’s health, needs evolve over time, and plans are encouraged to offer flexibility and support tailored to each of the four major stages in a woman’s life.

• Childhood and adolescence: To support reproductive and menstrual health from an early age, plans can offer appropriate coverage (e.g., reusable menstrual products, access to information and reproductive health services).
• Fertility: Fertility issues can be costly and complex; solutions include covering gynecological treatments, HPV vaccines to prevent cancer, as well as maternity support.
• Menopause (including perimenopause): Managing symptoms related to physical and hormonal changes requires coverage that includes protections such as pelvic physiotherapy, hormone treatments, psychological support and nutritional counseling.
• Postmenopause: Maintaining overall health and preventing chronic illness or cancer present challenges that plans can address by facilitating access to telemedicine, cancer treatments and psychological support.

I believe that optimizing group insurance plans can improve access to care by providing the right resources at the right time.

For more information, our white paper Menopause and work: Creating an inclusive environment explores some of these issues.

Weight management requires a comprehensive approach that addresses the many factors that can lead to weight issues:

• Biology
• Genetics
• Psychology
• Medication
• Social conditions
• Environment

Despite persistent misconceptions, obesity is a complex condition with multiple causes—not simply a matter of willpower. Providing tools and services for nutrition, physical activity, and psychological support is essential for lasting results.

In this regard, the survey reveals that 65% of plan members want weight-loss medication included in their coverage.

A weight management process involves several key steps: learning about obesity, obtaining a personalized assessment by specialists, receiving psychological support, adopting a tailored exercise program, and getting nutritional guidance. Possible coverage includes reimbursement of expenses related to these steps, supporting a comprehensive and personalized approach to wellbeing.

Our white paper Obesity management: A shared commitment is an essential resource on this topic.

Managing disability and chronic pain also presents challenges for plan sponsors: 59% of plan members report a chronic health problem, and 39% reach the annual maximum for at least one benefit.

Proactive disability management relies on four pillars:

• Prevention
• Early intervention
• Absence management
• Rehabilitation and return to work

I believe that plan sponsors who focus on prevention and personalized support can reduce absenteeism (in both frequency and duration) and presenteeism, while optimizing overall health and talent retention.

These topics are addressed in our white paper Disability management: The importance of a proactive approach.

How to optimize employee use of your plan

The Benefits Canada survey shows that effective communication about plans is an area for improvement. Just over half of respondents (53%) understand their plan well, but for the others, partial or poor understanding can hinder optimal use of benefits.

Also of note is a persistent perception gap between sponsors (84% rate their plan as excellent or very good) and plan members (71% rate their plan as excellent or very good). This highlights a lack of understanding of coverage and group plan benefits.

In our opinion, this is a strategic issue for organizations. Limited understanding can reduce engagement and perceived value, affecting satisfaction and retention. Moreover, 72% of insured individuals are open to receiving targeted communications from the insurer.

Group insurance plans as a strategic lever

To fully realize the value and reach of group insurance plans, I believe it is necessary to go beyond traditional coverage by offering flexible, personalized solutions, focusing on prevention and innovation, and promoting understanding through educational initiatives and tools.

Here’s what such an approach could look like:

• Adapting plans to real needs: flexibility, personalization, prevention
• Enhancing and better communicating about plans
• Guiding partners and plan administrators in using information tools on procedures, available coverage, and relevant external resources
• Investing in mental health, financial health, and chronic disease prevention
• Managing costs through proactive management of key indicators (absenteeism rate, absence duration, response time, etc.) in disability management

By adopting these practices, I am confident that organizations will be able to optimize employee use of coverage and support team sustainability.

¹ The Benefits Canada Health Care Survey 2025 was conducted online by Ipsos for Contex Group from February 13 to 20, 2025, among a national sample of 1,000 group insurance plan members. An additional survey was conducted by Maru/Blue among 500 group insurance plan administrators from February 12 to 20, 2025.