New year, new health benefits? Here's how to keep your out-of-pocket costs down.

Checking out how your 2025 health insurance plan covers your existing doctors and prescriptions can help fend off surprise bills later.

For better or worse, most of what you already know about health insurance isn’t changing next year.

The good news is that you won’t need to relearn the basics if your plan is changing in 2025. The bad news is that the risk of unexpected bills remains, in part because the fine print for most policies “can get very complicated,” said Gary Young, director of the Center for Health Policy and Healthcare Research at Northeastern University.

This year, frustrations are running especially high. The killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson has triggered an outcry against a health insurance industry that’s already under fire from Congress over its role in prescription drug pricing. In the meantime, millions of people are struggling with medical debt as the costs of care continue to outrun inflation.

Here’s what to know to help keep your health care costs down in the year ahead, whether you’ve already received your new insurance card or are still shopping for coverage.

Some 164.7 million Americans receive health care benefits through their employers, KFF estimates. For many of them, the open enrollment period has been over for weeks, and they’ve already selected new coverage options or been automatically re-enrolled in their existing plan.

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/personal-finance/heath-insurance-costs-coverage-2025-rcna183822

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