Bobby Sain, Meridio’s CEO, reflects on 2025, its challenges around the health insurance industry, and the impacts seen by small businesses. He also shares lessons learned at Meridio and how we’re taking them into 2026 with focus, optimism, and momentum, continuing to help small businesses nationwide offer more attainable and manageable benefits coverage.

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If there is one thing that 2025 made clear, it's this: decisions around offering healthcare became harder, not easier, for small and mid-sized businesses. Quite simply, for many business owners, healthcare in 2025 wasn’t just expensive, it was exhausting. 

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At Meridio, we spent the year helping businesses across the country navigate these challenges and provide clarity relative to options for renewals, new plan structures, shifting regulations, and increasingly complex tradeoffs. We learned quite a bit, and more importantly, are applying those learnings to continue to be a valued partner to our customers in 2026 and beyond.

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2025: A Challenging Year for Small Businesses Offering (or Looking to Offer)  Healthcare Benefits

Small businesses have always faced unique challenges in healthcare but in 2025 the stakes rose sharply.

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Health insurance costs continued to climb, while uncertainty around regulations, subsidies, provider networks, and long-term affordability became a constant backdrop for employers trying to support their teams while protecting their businesses. For those relying on the ACA marketplace, ongoing uncertainty around subsidies added even more financial and mental strain, raising concerns about the potential loss of support, tighter underwriting, and in some cases, reduced essential coverage.

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Rising premiums strained cash flow, while employees felt the impact through higher deductibles and increased out-of-pocket costs. Many business owners found themselves weighing healthcare decisions against hiring plans, wage increases, or investments in growth.

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At the same time, questions about the future of ACA subsidies (critical for businesses and individuals who depend on the marketplace) became impossible to ignore. For employers, “what happens next” wasn’t theoretical; it directly shaped how confidently they could plan, contribute, or expand benefits.

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The reality for small businesses in 2025 was clear: healthcare decisions carried lasting consequences, the margin for error continued to shrink, and understanding what truly changed and what it means going forward became essential.

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A Deeper Dive: What Actually Changed and Why Business Leaders Should Care

First, cost pressure intensified and risk moved closer to employers. Whether through higher deductibles, alternative funding models, or tighter underwriting, more financial responsibility landed on employers and their employees. For small businesses, this meant greater exposure to volatility and fewer opportunities to “absorb” surprises. The result wasn’t better cost control, it was more financial anxiety for employers and their employees.

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Second, healthcare “choice” expanded but clarity lagged behind. SMBs were increasingly asked to choose between complex structures without clear guidance on what the options were, how they worked, and the tradeoffs. More options didn’t lead to better decisions, they led to paralysis. And the systems that serve these markets, namely brokers, were taxed with limited time and resources to create clarity out of this complexity for all of their clients.

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Transparency improved but understanding didn’t always follow. Price tools, provider directories, and plan comparisons became more common, and now with the prevalence of AI entering every facet of our lives, more “intelligent” systems are available to help make it easier to understand. But transparency without context left business owners unsure how costs will actually play out.

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Finally, alternative options like self-funding became more mainstream for SMBs. What was once considered niche is now a serious consideration for many 20-100 person small businesses. The challenge wasn’t access, it was education. SMBs needed help understanding not just what these options were, but when they made sense.

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Across all of these changes, one theme stood out: small businesses didn’t need more complexity, they needed a partner to help navigate and manage it.

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Meridio: Our Purpose and Continued Focus—Helping Small Businesses with Strategic and Affordable Benefit Offerings

Meridio exists for a simple reason: small businesses deserve access to healthcare strategies that are understandable, affordable, and aligned with their goals.

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We continue to build and optimize our offering to help small businesses nationwide across industries, growth stages, and geographies to help them navigate healthcare decisions without becoming experts themselves. Our mission is to simplify the complexity, curate the best options for each of our customer’s situations, and help businesses understand the coverage tradeoffs based on their unique situation and priorities. 

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As the health insurance landscape grew more complex in 2025, more small businesses relied on Meridio than ever before, reflecting both rising market challenges and the trust our customers place in us as their benefits partner.

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Top Lessons Learned in 2025

This year reinforced several lessons that shaped how we serve our small business customers, nationwide.

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Business leaders don’t want infinite choice, they want confidence. Employers want to know they’re making the right decision for their business and their teams, not just choosing from a long list of plans. They want to understand they’re getting a square deal amongst the noise.

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Affordability matters but sustainability matters more. Short-term savings without long-term understanding often leads to regret. Businesses value partners who help them think beyond the next cycle and are reliable for the long-term.

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Education is as important as access. Providing options isn’t enough. Businesses need help understanding risk, contribution strategies, and employee experience without jargon or pressure. The best decision should be natural, not forced.

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Healthcare expertise should live with the partner, not the employer. Business owners don’t want to become benefits specialists but they do want the outcome that benefits specialization provides. They want someone they trust to manage complexity on their behalf in a sustainable and modern way.

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These lessons pushed us to work harder, dig deeper, and refine how we curate and present health spending for our customers.

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How Meridio Evolved to Meet These Challenges

In response to these realities, Meridio made meaningful progress in 2025.

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We expanded and refined our product offerings to better meet small business needs across different sizes, industries, and risk profiles. We invested in tools and frameworks that help employers evaluate affordability, value, and risk rather than focusing on surface-level comparisons alone.

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We also grew our internal team to better serve our fast growing and evolving customer base, bringing on experienced professionals, engineers and designers, who share a commitment to serving our customers with clarity and integrity. As demand increased, we stayed focused on maintaining high-touch support and thoughtful guidance, not just scale for scale’s sake.

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Most importantly, we doubled down on our role as a trusted partner, helping businesses understand why a health plan offering makes sense for their team and their business, not just what it costs.

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2026: Meridio Continues to Focus on Providing the Best Healthcare Options for Small Businesses

Looking ahead, our focus is clear. 

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We will continue to curate the best healthcare options for small businesses: not just the most affordable, but the right ones.

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We will deepen our efforts to educate employers on the paths available to them, clearly explaining tradeoffs so decisions align with business goals and employee needs.

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We will continue managing risk and complexity on behalf of our customers, recognizing SMBs don’t need to be healthcare experts. That’s our responsibility.

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And we will stay disciplined about what we take on, ensuring every initiative supports our mission of making healthcare more understandable and sustainable for small businesses.

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One Final Thought

Healthcare will continue to evolve. Regulations will shift. Costs will fluctuate, and new models will emerge.

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Through it all, small businesses will still need a steady knowledgeable partner—one that understands the health benefits system, acknowledges its flaws, and works to deliver the best possible outcome with the tools available.

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Healthcare reform doesn’t happen all at once. It happens quietly through better decisions made by employers who finally understand the system thereby creating attrition against busted models that fade away in favor of something better. Something clearer. Something you trust.

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At Meridio, we want to make health affordable and accessible and we want to do that by helping business leaders and their teams improve their health spending through smarter buying power. We believe in that mission and are excited to build towards that better future.

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Ready to Explore Meridio?

Our team is here to assist you in navigating the benefits ecosystem uncertainty and analyze the options available to your business based on your company goals and employee needs. If you’d like to learn more about our strategic approach and plan offerings, reach out for a quick 30 minute call today.

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