The reaction from employers to High Deductible Employee Benefit plans is usually a scowl or unhappy face. Their employees are used to having a cadillac plan or something that has a super low deductible. Anything less than that is looked as a “take away”. The real story is that in most cases, you can enhance a #HighDeductible #Employer plan with other products, and make them as rich, or richer, than what the employees have now. The key to all of it is the education, both to the employer and the employees. It takes a minute to explain how it works and the strategy behind it. Some employers are not going to want it…which is fine. I’m just suggesting that #employers check it out.
Many times your High Deductible Group Benefits Plan can be even richer in benefits than a traditional PPO
Besides the ridiculous savings every month to enroll into a High Deductible Health Insurance Plan, there are ways that you can structure the plan, to make it as good or better than a traditional plan. #Aflac and #ColonialLife have great products that can help underfund the gaps in the cheaper High Deductible Group Health Plans. These products pay you money when certain things happen to you. You can structure the “payout” to cover most, if not all, of the cost of the services under the #HDHP.
ColonialLife, Aflac aka: #VoluntaryBenefits, Ancillary, Supplemental Benefits are gaining steam
Most times the monthly savings, moving to a cheaper, High Deductible Health Plan, more than pays for the Voluntary Benefits that an employee can use. These #VoluntaryBenefits will pay for things like, Hospital Stays, Accidents on and off the job, Disability, ER visits, X-Rays, broken teeth, and a whole host of other issues. Life Insurance can be done on a guarantee issue basis, depending on the number of enrolling employees. Cancer and Critical Illness plans can cover employees, and pay out thousands of dollars each incident. These plans are super cheap too…we’re not talking about a ton of money each month for the premium. For my employees at our agency, I have the Accident and Hospital Bridge Plan. My daughter has used it twice now for having babies, and I’ve used it multiple times on the Accident Plan.
In these times, strategy is the name of the game. There is no magic bullet to reduce #EmployeeBenefit costs, but having a plan and keeping an open mind is critical.
Steve Brauer, Principal, Brauer Insurance Services, (877) 421-4325, www.brauerinsurance.com