Information
What Motivates Us?
Below are two short real-world scenarios that describe both the problem and the dramatic effects.
“A mother and child are visiting a playground. Suddenly, the child falls off a play equipment and is seriously injured. Instead of calling an ambulance, the mother decides to drive the child to the hospital herself because she can not afford the additional costs despite her having health insurance."
"Employees are stretching their prescription medications because they are too expensive and the employee lacks the money to pay for them."
An Unacceptable Situation:
However, the Health / Medical plans purchased annually by a company for all its employees and their families have a deductible of $ 1,500 to $ 5,000 for individuals and $ 4,000 to $ 8,500 for families. This does not take additional co-pays and co-insurances into account.
This has a number of negative consequences, not just for plan members, but also for the company, such as:
- Employees delay doctor visits
- Follow-up treatments are postponed, where possible
- Stress factors increases as bills and health concerns increase
- Employee absence rates go up - due to lack of needed treatment(s)
- Productivity loss – this is a huge issue
- Increasing the stress factor for representative colleagues
- Turnover increases - as employees change to employers with better plans
- Employees do not sign up for a plan, because it is too expensive, etc.
"66,5 % of personal bankruptcies in the United States are the result of medical bills, even though most people have insurance."
What are Reasons?
The United States by far has the highest health care costs in the world. The insurance costs are based on claims made by plan members, admin/service fees, surcharges for assessed risk(s) and profit. The average annual contributions of $7,188 for individuals and $20,576 for families are only possible, because the aforementioned deductibles are applied (Source: Kaiser Family Foundation 2019). Increasing insurance rates result currently 7 to 12% annual increases to plan costs of the following year.
Are there Possible Solutions?
The answer is "Definitely Yes". Although initially maybe hard to fathom, these solutions are not just between 20% to 50% less than traditional insurance plans, they also improve the quality of care and can potentially reduce employees' co-payments down to $ 0.
Why has Nothing Changed?
Despite all verifiable disadvantages and existing better solutions, the current status quo is just not questioned. Most HR colleagues simply lack the training to purchase health plans, relying on "neutral" consultants (brokers). Deeply rooted in a case of conflict-of-interest, better solutions are just not presented to clients, as most brokers are paid a percentage of the annual insurance premium in commission by insurance companies. The result is an understandable no disinterest in reducing premiums.
From FBC’s perspective, it is both the social and economic responsibility of every company to bring and end to these conditions.
Protecting the human capital should be a top priority of any size company.
We are here to help you work towards a better future for your health care every step of the way!
