Health Care Insurance for Company Employees

[Gale Poudrier]

Our company provides inurance coverage for qualified emplyees. Each year, we review our plan to ensure what is best for our employees and our company. Can anyone recommend a provider that they have?

[Philip Schaafsma]

We have been working with a good size agency that works for us and with us to find the best in coverage. They can make recomendations in our coverages and have worked for us in negitiating the rates with the major carriers. They had us with Blue Cross for several years but then prices crept up and United Health Care is who we are now with. UHC's rate came in at 12% less than BC renewal. Our broker will shop rates for us each year. Good luck! Perhaps we'll have a government plan soon!!!!!

[Brian Wolfsohn]

We use United Health Care, but i'd have to classify them under "prince of thieves", or "best of the worst" There are no good options out there at this point..

Support single payer..

Brian Wolfsohn
Shack in th Back Growers
Southwest Ranches, fl

[Hap Hollibaugh]

We joined the Western Growers Association to have access to their insurance program. They offer decent health insurance options at a rate that beats all the other options we could find. Since (I think) you are outside their boundaries they are not likely an option for you, but there may be a similar trade group in your area that you can join to have a "giant group" discount. Good luck.

[Susan Cone]

it seems most people are not interested in a public plan, so I was suprised to see you write that statement. Almost all of my fellow nurserymen and landscapers are against it. I am for it myself. Here at my work we offer health insurance to those who want it with the cost shared half and half. Unfortunatly most of our employees can't afford anything else taken out of their checks ( because in MY opinion the wages have not caught up to inflation, how can a person really live off of $8.50 an hour, but that is a different subject) so they opt out, which in turn makes it so we each have to buy our own plan since we don't have enough group participation for a blanket policy. Darned if you and darned if you don't.

Philip Schaafsma said:

We have been working with a good size agency that works for us and with us to find the best in coverage. They can make recomendations in our coverages and have worked for us in negitiating the rates with the major carriers. They had us with Blue Cross for several years but then prices crept up and United Health Care is who we are now with. UHC's rate came in at 12% less than BC renewal. Our broker will shop rates for us each year. Good luck! Perhaps we'll have a government plan soon!!!!!

[Fluffy Scarsdale]

I support single payer as well.  

Brian Wolfsohn said:

We use United Health Care, but i'd have to classify them under "prince of thieves", or "best of the worst" There are no good options out there at this point..

Support single payer..

Brian Wolfsohn
Shack in th Back Growers
Southwest Ranches, fl

[Owner/Operator]

Why don't you just pay your employees the money you would spend helping them with their health plan. Then they could take care of it them selves!!!!

[Fluffy Scarsdale]

Just paying them more doesn't help.  An individual plan costs more and covers less and individual plans have less benefits overall.   A group plan is the way to go if you get it - or, if you're an employer, can afford to offer it.  The employer has to cover at least half of the cost of the employee's individual premium amount and the employee can pick up the other half and also elect to cover and pay for their spouses and kids coverage at group rates through a payroll deduction.  And that payroll deduction can also be set up to be taken on a pre-tax basis bases which saves the employer money and makes the coverage even less expensive than paying with after tax dollars for an individual plan.  Groups can be as small as a group of two but smaller groups pay actual rates not composite rates which are cheaper still.  Group plans offer portability so when an employee leaves he/she can continue coverage on their own.

As an employer, if you offer group coverage you can select which plan to offer and also which class of employees are eligible (e.g. only full time employees - full time as defined as 32 hours or more 48 out of 52 weeks or you can define the plan to only be eligible for say people in management roles etc).

Up until the Health Care Reform Act (which some people disparagingly refer to as Obamacare) insurance companies could cancel an individual plan --at any time-- say like right when they received a big claim.    That never happened in group plans.  

As for the rates--typically every group will have a big claim every three years--that's just what the actuaries say in underwriting.  So if you've been with one insurance carrier by year three your rates will go so high you will shop because they priced you out.  It's built into the pricing models along with lots of other things.  It's also built into the commissions schedules.  As an agent you get better commissions and bonuses for signing new groups.   There's a lot to know about insurance but group is much much better than individual insurance.   

Owner/Operator said:

Why don't you just pay your employees the money you would spend helping them with their health plan. Then they could take care of it them selves!!!!

[Fluffy Scarsdale]

I would stick with the bigger players: United HealthCare, BlueCross/Blue Shiled, Aetna because the bigger companies have more plans to pick from.  Like a plan with a high deductible but low co-pays for dr visits.   Most people want to be able to visit a doctor for $25 or $35 and are OK with a higher deductible if they go into the hospital which happens much less frequently.   Unfortunately most insurance plans have  most everything else going to co-insurance which most people don't see when shopping for a plan.

The bigger players also have larger provider networks.   

Look at the out-of-pocket maximums and co-insurance amounts when comparing plans.  Sometimes, getting a (cheaper) higher deductible plan and adding a GAP plan is better and less expensive than the lower deductible plan.  There's more paperwork and hassle, to file a claim with a GAP plan but they work and save money for those who don't mind the extra hassle.   

[Terri Pinder]

Most of my field workers don't want to pay for health insurance because they simply prefer to have the money in their check. My older (40-60 y/o) employees who work our retail side need some kind of coverage. I need to be able to offer something to recruit decent help. So we have just recently begun to implement the following plan:

I will buy employee coverage on a plan that pays the employee directly if hospitalized or accident (AFLAC-like plan through Allstate). I have also set up, through quickbooks payroll, a program whereby money can be deposited into a health savings plan each month by me on behalf of each employee. I deposit $100/month. They can access this money with a debit card and use it for IRS approved medical expenses. It accumulates and rolls from year to year. BUT if they leave my employ, the money reverts back to me. The money is deposited before income tax, so there is a benefit there too. I have no employees with chronic illness, so this works for them- they rarely spend more than $1200/year anyway.

I have also been talking with a Nurse Practitioner in the area who does "house calls" for $75. I am considering matching employees' dollars spent if they choose this provider for minor illnesses. So I would pay $37.50 and they would pay $37.50 to be seen for an intermittent illness or health screening.

I believe we are going to see health insurance premiums being based on a person's "numbers" (blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol & BMI) plus his/her lifestyle (ie smoking, drinking) and employers will make it the employee's responsibility to pay any up charges for poor health decisions. 

[Owner/Operator]

I would think one would pay an employee what they are worth and let them take care of their own personal needs. Medical needs are your employees business. Growing and selling plants is your business.

Terri Pinder said:

Most of my field workers don't want to pay for health insurance because they simply prefer to have the money in their check. My older (40-60 y/o) employees who work our retail side need some kind of coverage. I need to be able to offer something to recruit decent help.

[Terri Pinder]

Actually, in our business model, I am not an Owner/Operator. I don’t grow the plants. My role includes the responsibility of Human Resource Management as well as business development planning and financial management. In that capacity, I have done my homework regarding what our employees “are worth” through market analysis of pay rates for comparable work. We actually pay 15 – 25% above those findings. The problem is, with the current state of health care in this nation, even with pay like that, it is not enough to be able to afford an Individual Policy. And, without willing participation by a minimum of 75% of our staff, an affordable Group Option is not available either. With the current unemployment situation, much of our staff have lost the coverage they previously had when spouses lost their jobs. For our employees, having some kind of safety net for unexpected health care costs is very important to them. They want me (with my experience and specific knowledge about insurance) to help them solve that problem. And as part of our organization’s strategic plan, we see it as our role to do so. While I love the simplicity of your suggestion that it simply is not my problem, I think you are a little naïve about the costs of not offering your staff some solution to this problem. In our experience, not offering this sort of assistance has cost us more than what is involved in setting up a creative program such as I have described. In the past, we lost out on the hiring of very skilled folks who passed on our higher wage offer to go with a competitor who offered group health and a lower salary.  In one instance, we lost a key employee in the first week of our busiest season because she had gone to the ER for severe abdominal pain, could not pay the resulting $20K ER bill, and quit to qualify for Medicaid rather than find herself in bankruptcy.  Sad for her, but the staffing crisis it created for us, cost us thousands. Not to mention the cost of lost talent, and the impact on our quality of life since the stress of losing a key player at the outset of our big return season. There are numerous studies on the hidden costs of an un-well staff. So while you may think it is not your problem, you are paying one way or another. We choose to determine the costs at the outset, rather than react to them after the fact. 

Owner/Operator said:

I would think one would pay an employee what they are worth and let them take care of their own personal needs. Medical needs are your employees business. Growing and selling plants is your business.

Terri Pinder said:

Most of my field workers don't want to pay for health insurance because they simply prefer to have the money in their check. My older (40-60 y/o) employees who work our retail side need some kind of coverage. I need to be able to offer something to recruit decent help.