Canadian plan sponsors are consistently underestimating the share of their employees living with at least one chronic condition, according to the 2025 Benefits Canada Healthcare Survey.
While three in five (59 per cent) plan members reported having at least one chronic condition, plan sponsors estimated that an average 38.5 per cent of their workforce had one. The disconnect has been a theme across several years’ results: the closest plan sponsors have ever gotten to an accurate estimate was in 2023 when they estimated an average 43 per cent of their workforce had at least one chronic condition while 54 per cent of plan members said they did.
Mental-health conditions were the most common diagnosed condition, with 20 per cent of plan members reporting having one, followed by high cholesterol (14 per cent), hypertension (14 per cent), chronic pain (13 per cent) and arthritis (12 per cent). Ten per cent of plan members have diabetes and nearly the same share had diagnosed obesity (nine per cent). Five per cent have an autoimmune condition. Thirty-four per cent of plan members said they have multiple conditions.
Read: Coverage of the 2025 Chronic Disease at Work conference
“A lot of these chronic conditions are invisible, so you can’t necessarily look at somebody and know they are suffering from hypertension or if they have a mental-health condition,” said Michael Kondrat, director of sales for Ontario, Western and Atlantic Canada in group insurance, sales and partner experience at Beneva Inc., during a panel discussion launching the survey results at Benefits Canada’s 2025 Toronto Benefits Summit.
Insurers can do a better job helping plan sponsors to understand chronic conditions and, in particular, the ones present in their workforces, he added. “Working together to create a culture of health is going to be hard if we don’t have specific data or don’t know what’s going on with that employee group.”
The survey also found that 30 per cent of plan members who hadn’t reported a diagnosis of chronic pain experienced chronic pain. Women were more likely (46 per cent) than men (31 per cent) to have diagnosed or undiagnosed chronic pain, while women were more likely (64 per cent) than mean (53 per cent) to have any chronic condition.
Read: How employers can prioritize women’s health in benefits plans
“Women have historically lacked representation in health research, which has resulted in limited treatment and diagnostic practices targeted to us,” said Barbara Martinez, national practice leader for drug solutions at the Canada Life Assurance Co., also speaking at the event.
That’s slowly changing, she said, and the industry is beginning to develop products and solutions to support women. These include health-care spending accounts, a robust drug plan and access to health-care providers supporting the needs of women, such as by covering family-building benefits and sharing educational pieces aimed at helping employers address the gender health gap.
Download the full 2025 Benefits Canada Healthcare Survey report here. Look for more coverage of the panel discussions analyzing this year’s results in the coming days.