2025 Annual Specialty Drug Survey Report:

A Data-Driven Look at Specialty Drug Costs in 2024

The National Institute for Public Employee Health Care Policy and the Public Sector HealthCare Roundtable have released the 2025 Annual Specialty Drug Survey Report, analyzing 2024 plan year data from public sector health plans across the country.

Public sector health care purchasers, who provide health coverage to America’s teachers, firefighters, law enforcement officers, and other essential government workers, are experiencing significant challenges as they try to balance the costs of innovative prescription drugs with robust, competitive health insurance benefits and access to life-sustaining medications. The data in this report tell a clear and urgent story: the costs of specialty drugs continue to outpace all other health care spending and are a primary driver of rising health care costs.

This report presents findings from the 2025 Specialty Drug Survey, conducted by the National Institute for Public Employee Health Care Policy and Public Sector HealthCare Roundtable. 23 public sector plan sponsors representing 17 states responded, collectively covering approximately over 5.5 million beneficiaries. Together they spent nearly $30 billion in 2024 on commercial health care, nearly $8 billion of which was spent on pharmacy benefits alone.