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August 11, 2017 at 07:59 PM
Anticipation can be a good thing, but that’s not the case for employers during seemingly ever-changing health care reform legislation.
The uncertainty has caused some to stay focused on medical insurance, with a wait-and-see attitude on other benefits. This distraction can be a problem for employees, and for employers as well. Because regardless of how health care reform turns out, it has and will continue to do little to directly impact employers top two concerns, health care costs and employee retention.
(Related: Finding the Next Generation of Brokers)
Waiting to see what happens with one heavy-hitting-benefit is keeping some companies from implementing health care cost reduction techniques as well as building comprehensive programs now that can attract and keep top talent, an increasingly important skill during today’s relatively low unemployment rates.
Voluntary benefits can help Brokers encourage clients to get moving by showing them how these important products provide flexibility, control costs and set employees up with stronger, more robust financial protection. It can serve as a relationship-building tool for brokers as well, who will be able to deliver solutions instead of only dreaded news of yet another increase in health insurance premiums.
In case you’re wondering if clients would be interested, consider this: A third of employees enroll in every type of voluntary coverage offered, according to the 2016 Employee Benefits Enrollment Study by Customer Benefits Analytics and Lodestar Advisory Partners. And with 40% of surveyed Americans unable to cover a $400 emergency expense without selling something, there’s a clear need for that financial protection.
Here are three ways you can advise clients to improve or develop comprehensive benefits plans.
1. Redesign the benefits package with a higher-deductible health plan to reduce health insurance cost and pair it with voluntary benefits to offset employees’ increased financial exposure.
