Healthcare Consumerism

So I find it funny...I get called and emailed daily by clients who have just received their 2010 group health plan renewals. The message is the same every time....20%!! or 34%!! or 36%!! Yep, it is here to stay folks and the way carriers will over-increase the plans that they can't keep up with, i.e. copay-based PPO plans...and we will see this every year for the foreseeable future.

So my message is a constant back....HRA with a high-deductible health plan...no not an HSA they are different and the company doesn't "own" them. The HRA I feel is the way employers can actually increase their benefits especially for the somewhat healthy employees, and the sick employees with huge bills, will indeed feel a bit of out-of-pocket in a year, as they should. I have had big bills before, and as a consumer I believe that is right. We can't afford a true socialized system in the U.S., and actually I have had direct experience with an Executive currently cleaning up the NHS in the U.K. which is currently crippled by a socialistic model. Don't believe everything you read is all I can say, and trust the source.

My firm actually makes TONS less in income selling high-deductible health plans with HRAs and does TONS more work on them than selling the easy "dummy" sale of a PPO with a copay plan.....problem is they are the problem. We are not part of the problem, but rather a part of the solution. I can't tell you how many times I have had HR push back on our strategy simply because the idea didn't come from the incument broker, and seems like a bunch of work. When we get the ear of a CEO/CFO our success rate is over 85%. Financial savvy executives flock to us, HR areas worry about the amount of work, which I can understand. Here is my personal take, we are all going to be replaced with outsourcing and computers if we do not do things in the corporate world to stop the inceasing spend on benefits, there will become no other choice but to completely outsource HR and Benefits to private companies. Another reason our clients (HR departments) love us....job preservation. We keep the finances in check, the tools are awesome, and or ideas keep the CEO and CFO happy.

As such, I call to you HR folks, please, please, trust us or someone like us....this is the solution to the never ending price increases which will contine to ramp back up and we are on our side in this revolution.