Search the News Archive

Personalized Care Act (ICHSA) Could and Should End Employer-Based Health Insurance

"[It] is our employer health insurance financing system that is driving up the costs of the underlying markets.... [T]he financing system drives the price of the product, not the other way around.... [O]ur financing system denies employee choice and therefore we do not have a true consumer market driven system. Our employer-based financing system is the root cause of health care cost inflation because it denies consumer choice that we have for almost every other product we buy in the U.S."

What Sport is Your Benefits Business Playing?

"With firms like Fidelity entering the benefits business, others like Zenefits and Gusto raising tens to hundreds of millions of dollars, and the national firms continuing their rapid pace of acquisitions, one must wonder whether the benefits game is changing in a bigger way.... The bar will get raised and raised again, in a way that the price to compete is more resources and more specialized skills.... This benefits game may no longer be a golf event where a single skilled player can compete. It may not even be a basketball or baseball game where 5 and 9 players are adequate. It may require the army of a professional football team with 53 highly skilled players."

The Health Insurance Tsunami Is Coming -- and It Will End Employer Health Insurance as We Know It

"Employers are sick and tired of being in the health insurance business. Some have started the process of getting out by looking to offer individual products through an HRA.... [The authors] believe that after the election the deduction for health insurance will move away from the employer and to the individual, ending traditional group health insurance forever."

Redefining Employee Benefits

"This emerging market demand to help people through their workplace has resulted in a significant amount of capital being invested in new companies providing products and services to fill the need. These solutions include wellness, nutrition and smoking cessation programs, financial fitness, college loan payment support, employee loan programs, help with bad credit, and more."

'Alexa, What Is My Deductible?'

"Benefits technology ... has not had broad adoption by employees. Yes, employers have bought systems or brokers have given them away, but when you look at utilization on the employee side it is abysmal.... [T]he reason for this is because there is not enough value as a stand-alone solution to generate broad adoption."

Can Your Benefits Firm Handle a Benefits Bear Market?

"[W]hat does a bear market in benefits look like? What can cause a bear market? Commission compression? A move to fee for service? Government intervention including changes in tax laws? Obamacare collapsing? The budget deficit getting higher with rising health care costs being a big contributor? The MLR? Hospitals getting squeezed? Higher deductibles and employee contributions? All these factors appear to be present right now, favoring a need for change. Could it signal a coming bear market?"

Consumerism in Healthcare is Not Practical

"[M]aking consumer based decisions around the small stuff may become common. But as a means of controlling health care costs, no way. We all know that the majority of health care costs come from few people with chronic conditions. If I need to change have my oil changed maybe I can shop the market. But if I need a new engine I would hope to have a very educated mechanic at my side to help me make the best decisions."

The End of Employer-Based Healthcare?

"[What Mark Bertolini, CEO of Aetna, is saying] is that health insurance is going to become a direct to consumer retail purchase. The provider systems will be the risk takers not the insurance companies. And there is a movement in Washington to eliminate the health insurance deduction at the employer level in exchange for lowering the corporate tax rate."

This Company Got a 16% Health Insurance Increase: This Is Not Sustainable

"Only 30 days in advance of my April 1st renewal date I got an email informing me that my company's medical insurance rates are increasing 16%. For a $2000 deductible plan ... it now costs $20,736 per year for family health insurance coverage. For an employee making $40,000 per year this is 50% of this employee's payroll cost. If I asked this person to pay for 100% of the increase this would be equal to a pay-cut of 7.35%. This is not sustainable."

Fidelity Enters the Benefits Business: Why Many Others Will Follow

"Employer desire to simplify.... Demand for more and better outsourced services.... Advance of Defined Contribution Plans (aka Private Exchanges) ... Financial wellness in the workplace ... The broker commission is in play."