Dollar General employees warned of 2026 health-care hikes; investor filing seeks report

Dollar General employees who rely on employer-sponsored health coverage should plan for possible cost increases in 2026, a benefits-advice article warned on Feb. 17, 2026. The piece, dated Feb. 17, 2026, “summarizes broader insurer pricing pressure and previews how employers” may respond, though the supplied excerpt of that sentence is truncated.

The warning about 2026 cost pressure arrives after a 2025 shareholder resolution filed with Dollar General Corporation that sought a public accounting of employee health access. The 2025 resolution, filed under the issue area Health with focus areas Reproductive Health, Worker Rights, Health & Safety, argues in its WHEREAS language that “Employees’ productivity and performance are linked to their health and wellness. Employees struggling with illness or medical-related stress are less able to perform well. Poor employee healthcare access may undermine Dollar General’s operations and slow the implementation of its growth strategy.” The resolution’s BE IT RESOLVED request asks that the Board “issue a public report, omitting confidential information and at reasonable expense, on the sufficiency of employees’ access to timely, quality healthcare, and discussing the Company’s strategy to ameliorate any insufficiencies identified.”

Investor-advocacy group material supplied as Iccr highlights workforce demographics and specific business risks tied to restricted healthcare access. Iccr states that “Dollar General’s workforce is 66% female” and lists “Potential harms to Dollar General from state-specific healthcare access restrictions” that “include: amplified challenges in recruiting and retaining employees, higher employee mortality and health challenges, and higher healthcare costs for employees and the company.” Iccr also notes that “The need to ensure its employees are well cared for is amplified as Dollar General considers offering healthcare services.”

Taken together, the Feb. 17, 2026 advisory and the 2025 shareholder filing frame rising insurer pricing and constrained healthcare access as both a near-term cost issue for employees and an operational risk for the company. The benefits-advice article ties the immediate 2026 cost outlook to insurer pricing pressure, while the filed 2025 resolution links employee health access to productivity, recruiting, retention and the company’s growth strategy.

Several concrete gaps remain in the supplied materials: the Feb. 17, 2026 article excerpt gives no dollar or percentage guidance on projected 2026 increases, the source for the 66% female workforce figure is not specified in the provided Iccr excerpt, and the shareholder resolution text includes omitted passages signaled by ellipses. Employees, investors and board members will be watching whether Dollar General’s Board responds to the 2025 filing and whether company communications or benefits materials address the Feb. 17, 2026 advisory about possible 2026 health-plan cost increases.