I don't disagree with the general sentiment, but I don't believe the reasoning is actually true. Generally companies pool their employees into a risk pool. Smaller ones will find a broker that does it, larger ones probably do it with their company population. But in general, the risk gets spread out enough that a couple individuals do not cause insurance to spike.

I could be wrong also, not an expert by any means, but that is basically what our HR rep told me when I inquired (not because of age but because my wife is high-risk/high-cost, depending how you look at it). I was told that was not part of the equation because of how it was setup. It could if it was a small enough business that tried to negotiate something themselves, maybe?