Healthcare Reform and The Future of Employee Benefit Plans

I am trying to figure out why we spend so many countless hours educating the employer and become knowledgeable about the health of the pan and employee benefits packages. Talk about a serious amount of time spent away from production and instead is filled with brokers and employers meeting regarding renewal, mid-year review of claims, more employee education meetings, retaining trained staff at the office of the employer to operate the Plan and Human Resources Administration and the list goes on and on.

What is the answer? The only answer that is fair and balanced is the introduction of insurance based on individual needs that are determined outside of business hours. We purchase our auto and homeowners insurance through local insurance agents, but we are bound for employers to manage the health care system. A business or community in the city can have a fantastic benefits package to pay 100% of employees rate and 50% depending on the rate. And if I'm lucky enough to be there, an employee can participate and have access to health care at a rate that is much lower than the national average. My colleague across the way may work for other businesses in town and they provide benefits, but pay only 50% of employees rate the plan's catastrophic coverage at best. What happens if my employer changes plan for next year and all of a sudden I have to pay more in terms of premiums and cost sharing? No control, no consistency in this approach. No relationship to the health plan, unless the employer contract. In this scenario, we are not connected to the cost of premiums or the decision making process.

look back control and to know more before you buy. We must take into account the model of independent, where people can buy health insurance through local independent agents or detained agents are able to offer a variety of different carriers and plans. According to current models of the employer are connected by a plan, an employer has chosen for us. (And what if the employer is crazy personal or business decisions, and business goes belly up, then I just lost my family plan and I were counting on the Cobra will not apply, because there is no power plan) This is what I mean when i say that it is necessary to take back control and end reliance on employer based on the model.

has nothing to do with the cost of health care services. Only a dentist and the doctor's office when I pay for services when I "left the building." There is absolutely no connection between cost and service use. Consumers need greater access to health care claims costs prior to office visits instead of the standard "gotcha" billing approach that we are sensitive to. For example, when I buy other goods as American consumers know to buy time, which will cost items. {eg a gallon of milk ($ 3.79)} When I go to the doctor's office I was sent and / or my insurance carrier laws after services are rendered. Why did I go to the doctor, and because it is one of the providers in the health plan that my employer offers. I'd much rather prefer better access to consumer data, such as going to work in the lab cost me as much as the MRI object vs. object B? We need to re-education process on how to buy health plans, and after we buy them we need to further educate and ask relevant questions about how much we have to pay for services when rendered.