David HirschfeldFounder & CEO, Tekyz Inc. · Founder & CEO at Tekyz Corp | Software Startup Acceleration, AI Experts, Workflow Automation, Board

Healthcare costs are accelerating, and the ripple effects are just beginning.

15 Jan 2026 · 1 min

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In this commentary, the speaker highlights that health‑plan costs are climbing sharply across major carriers, especially for Medicare and Medicaid business. While insurers attribute the surge primarily to expensive GLP‑1 diabetes/weight‑loss drugs, the speaker argues that delayed preventive care during the COVID‑19 pandemic—where people avoided medical visits—has also generated a backlog of health needs that is now inflating costs. Looking ahead, the speaker predicts that the pressure on profit margins will likely spur additional merger and acquisition activity among insurers.

Chapters

Health plans are struggling right now, and it's across the board. Mm-hmm. You, if you read the press, every one of the large carriers is claiming their costs, especially on Medicare and Medicaid business, is rising much more rapidly than inflation is ramping up. They all claim it's the GLP-1 drugs. I'm not sure that's the only cause. During COVID people didn't take care of their health because they didn't want to go out and get infected with COVID We're seeing an uptick in people who didn't take care of themselves now needing that care, and that's causing some of the rise as well. I think we're going to see some more merger activity moving forward.