by USAID Afghanistan
Five Ways to Cut your Health Insurance Costs
Nearly one-third of all health-insurance premiums increased to 30 percent or more. At that rate, the average cost of health insurance per employee will exceed ,000. Seventy-three percent of senior executives believe health-care costs will continue to increase 20 percent or more each year for the next three years. The message here is clear: If you haven’t already gotten serious about cutting your company’s health-insurance costs, now is the time. It can be done. The first thing you should do is learn how the system works–or doesn’t work. Most small employers spend fewer than four hours a year thinking about their company health plans. Learn what your options are. Your insurance agent can help you shop for cheaper plans. But don’t stop there. Compare plan benefits, insurance-company records, and service guarantees.
Consider Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans and HMOs (health-maintenance organizations), even if your agent doesn’t handle them. The Blues in some areas, offer clear advantages to small companies. Experts regard HMOs as the best buys in health care. Find out if your company is eligible for new, low-cost health insurance plans now available in five states. In addition, foundation-funded pilot projects in several parts of the country are demonstrating that it is possible to cut health-coverage costs 30 to 40 percent. In short, health insurance isn’t as simple as it used to be. And the pace of change is accelerating, offering new hope for a truce in the business battle with exploding health-care costs. The next couple of years present as much potential for change as at any time in the past 20 years. You can be part of that change by putting at least some of the following 5 ideas to work for your company.
1) Increase Cost Sharing By Employees
This recommendation is at the top of every consultant’s list. Small companies tend to pay far more of their workers’ total health-care bill than large companies do. Yet research shows that insulating employees from the costs of care encourages unnecessary use of health services. Fifty-two percent of the companies responding to the Nation’s Business health survey said they pay 100 percent of their employees’ health-insurance premiums. But 45 percent said they intended to implement or increase employee contributions to these premiums. An equal number said they plan to increase employee deductibles. Insurance companies first attached 0 deductibles to major-medical plans in the early 1950s. But 40 percent of employers still set deductibles at 0 or less. Raising a 0 deductible to 0 would cut premium costs for single coverage by about 11 percent. A 0 deductible would cut costs by about one-fourth. A ,000 deductible would save about one-third.
2) Allow Employees To Pay For Health Premiums With Tax-Free Dollars
Set up a so-called flexible spending account, which allows your employees to pay their share of health-insurance premiums and un-reimbursed health-care expenses with pretax dollars. A flexible spending account could save employees 20 cents to 35 cents on the dollar, because state and federal income taxes and Social Security taxes are not imposed.
Moreover, the company saves by reducing the employee’s base salary on which it pays Social Security and other taxes. Hire an outside payroll accounting firm to handle the paperwork. You can pay the service fee and still come out with a net savings. The monthly administration fee would run between and per employee.
3) Transfer High-Risk Employees To The State’s High-Risk Pool
Insurance premiums soar whenever someone in a small-group plan becomes very ill–with cancer or heart disease, for example. As an employer, you should explore the possibility of moving employees with serious health problems into a state high-risk pool and then negotiating a lower premium for the healthy members of your group.
4) Switches To An Open-Enrollment Blue Cross And Blue Shield Plan
Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans operate as de facto high-risk pools in a number of states by providing “open enrollment” periods during which any group can buy insurance. Among the 74 Blue Cross and Blue Shield organizations nationwide, 21 offer open enrollment. All the Blues once used community rating to set premium levels. But that began to change in the 1960s when commercial insurers started to lure away firms with low risks by offering them cheaper health insurance.
5) Replace Your Traditional Health Plan With An HMO
Unlike traditional health insurance, HMOs cover all medical needs, including routine preventive care, for a flat monthly fee that typically is less expensive than traditional health insurance. Moreover, two types of HMOs, the staff and the group models, have proven to be more effective at controlling costs than any other form of health-care delivery. Staff models employ physicians directly and put them on salary.
For more articles related to this subject and others please visit Health Insurance.info
presidents and prime ministers sing in harmony. Love and happiness abounds. Donations: www.thegregorybrothers.com Lyrics HC: Tun tun tun tun tun tun tun tun Seamos un tilín mejores Y un poco menos egoístas Tun tun tun tun tun tun tun tun Huele a esperanza FR: In this common endeavor Huele a esperanza GB: All of us work together HC: Tun tun tun tun tun tun tun tun BO: We must embrace a new era of engagement Because the time has come UN Choir: To smell the hope! GB: For growth to be sustained It has to be shared UN Choir: ohhh, We can smell the hope! BO: The time has come UN Choir: To smell a better world!! FR: A better world to live in for future generations everywhere. AG: Don’t get sick That’s right, don’t get sick If you have insurance, don’t get sick If you don’t have insurance, don’t get sick If you’re sick, don’t get sick Just don’t get sick That’s the Republicans’ health care plan CC: He has a chart AG: An angry chart CC: A chart that helps us learn! AG: ooh ooh ah ah If you get sick in America, die quickly That’s right–the Republicans want you to die quickly if you get sick AG: I agree! CC: He agrees! AG: Angrily! CC: Cuz he’s angry! KO: Afford to live? Are we at that point? Are we so heartless? How can we not be united against death? Us: My BFF Gilgamesh knows eternal life’s an impossible quest The resources exist for your father and mine to get the same treatment Us: Yeah, we’re in agreement But first we gotta lay down some All: High speed rail Us: Bail out some …
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Who pooped in here?
@mbblond08 You don’t smell the hope, do you?
i like this one its different
this is an awful auto tune the new but i love the drum beat in the beginning
@pw4garfield5 now 5 more have to die more quickly!!!!
it looks like gordon brown is wanking
AT 2:16 from then to the end the woman down the bottom scared meh
Schmoyoho gives me hope for man kind.
sounds like a pretty accurate republican health plan to me
When the lyrics said “Cuz, he’s angry” I thought it said: “Cuz, he’s in greek!”
555 dislikes… its like a crap version of the devils number!
Whoa! Reinfeldt! :O
@pw4garfield5 Why don’t you want them to die slowly?
is it me or does the beginning part with chavez almost sound like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme song for like the first 3 secs…?
tun tun tun tun tun tun…….*hugo chavez signature*
More Hilary Cliton please!
More Hillary Clinton
Reinfeldt sounds like a complete douche bag. Holy Christ. If he was the leader of my country I’d immediately kill myself without hesitation or a second thought.
”Who is there, my friend, can climb to the sky?
Only the gods dwell forever in sunlight.
As for man, his days are numbered,
whatever he may do, it is but wind.”
“My BFF Gilgamesh says eternal life’s an impossible quest” lol, omg the Gregory bros are genius.
Most Kanye-esque verse should be an award at major awards shows….
How can you not get sick if you’re already sick? LAWLZ XD
@milljh711 she is one of the brothers wife, they consider her a gregory brother though
“Tun tun tun tun, tun tun tun”