Health benefits are important to American workers. That is no surprise. Equally unsurprising is the fact that cost continues to be a big concern among workers with employer-sponsored health plans. As rates continue to rise, so do the actual costs of care. For many people, health benefits are quickly getting beyond their reach.
A recent survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) demonstrates just how concerned people are about rising health plan rates. People with private plans through their employers are more concerned about the cost than Medicaid and Medicare subscribers. Again, no surprises there.
The point of mentioning all of this is not to tell you something you don’t already know. The high cost of maintaining a health plan has been well known for decades. Instead, we want you to know that there are affordable options to traditional healthcare plans. We offer several plans that could save your company and your employees substantially.
Some People Not Getting Care
The KFF reveals that 55% of those with federal marketplace health plans rate their plans negatively when it comes to premiums. Among those with employer-sponsored plans, 46% are not plussed about their premiums. By contrast, just 27% of Medicare recipients and 10% of their Medicaid counterparts rate their plans negatively.
Perhaps those numbers do not surprise you. If so, this next statistic might: 40% of American adults with some sort of health plan in place skipped or delayed necessary healthcare within the previous year because they couldn’t afford the out-of-pocket expenses. An additional 16% said they had problems with healthcare bills during the same time frame.
It’s A Lot to Think About
If you are an employee just trying to make ends meet, wondering whether your health plan is going to actually meet your needs gives you a lot to think about. You might assume that you are covered for your upcoming visit or procedure, but maybe you aren’t really sure. Meanwhile, one of your coworkers cannot decide whether to have an elective procedure because she doesn’t know how much her part of the bill will be.
Interestingly enough, the KFF survey also revealed that 90% of covered Americans would support some sort of mandates on health plan providers to make their plans easier to read and understand. Approximately 80% would avail themselves of the services offered by a consumer assistance program established to help them make sense of their benefits.
In the end, we have a dual problem. First, even people with employer-sponsored health plans struggle to pay monthly rates and out-of-pocket expenses. Second, they don’t understand their health benefits. Both contribute to consumers not getting the healthcare services they really need.
A Simple and Affordable Solution
It is clear that Americans need a simple and affordable solution. That solution might be self-funding. Companies willing to establish self-funded health plans have the opportunity to customize their plans to save money. They have the opportunity to work with their plan administrators to create something that is easier to understand.
There is no single solution to the ongoing problem of high costs and complicated health plans. But there are ways to make health plans simpler and easier. Going the self-funded route is one of them. As a third-party administrator of self-funded health plans, we are here to help.
If you feel like you and your employees are being crushed under the weight of rising rates and suffocated by confusing plan rules and language, contact StarMed. Let’s see if we can help you come up with a more affordable plan you and your team can actually understand.
