Re-Evaluating Employee Healthcare in the Face of Rising Deductibles and Stagnant Wages

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Every day we hear again about how rising healthcare costs, especially deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs, are impacting consumers. But the real dilemma isn’t necessarily just rising deductibles and the trend of cost-shifting more and more costs to employees. It’s all of that in comparison to wage growth. Or rather – a lack of wage growth. Consider these staggering statistics:

• From 2010-2015, deductibles have risen almost seven times faster than wages. (Kaiser Family Foundation)
• A recent study from the Peterson-Kaiser Health System Tracker found that between 2004-2014 employee spending on deductibles increased by 256 percent, whereas wages only increased 32 percent.
• Another study by the Commonwealth Fund found that by 2013 healthcare premiums totaled at least 20 percent of employee wages in most US states, and in some cases 25-28 percent.

For nonprofits this is especially concerning when considering that most organizations are already struggling to provide competitive salaries to begin with. As healthcare costs increase and wages stagnate, nonprofits are more than likely finding themselves in a tighter bind that restricts recruitment and retention efforts.

However, there is a solution that may require some time and effort in the short run but with big payoffs long term. Re-evaluating your current healthcare plan with a keen eye can be a potential game changer when it comes to not only saving your organization time and money, but also providing better benefits for employees. And with six months to go until the big open enrollment season (which begins November 1, 2016), this is a perfect time to start.

For those nonprofits that are looking for creative solutions to the increasing unpredictability of traditional healthcare plan costs, we highly recommend breaking your re-evaluation of current offerings into three areas:

1. Know your current offerings and all associated costs
2. Understand the role of your broker and how they best serve your organization
3. Consider your organization’s “mission” when it comes to employee care, as well as understand what your employees most need out of a healthcare plan.

By taking each of these pieces one at a time, the task of re-evaluating your healthcare plan becomes more manageable. And in the end you will have a bigger – and better – picture of your health benefits to determine if they are truly serving your organization in the best way.

For more information on how to re-evaluate your healthcare plan and
alternatives to traditional benefits, please join us for a FREE webinar: