Oct 13, 2016
Self-insurance rises among small and medium-size employers - Benefits Pro
Jack Craver writes for Benefits Pro about the increase of self-insuring healthcare benefits among small and mid-size businesses.
Jack Craver writes for Benefits Pro about the increase of self-insuring healthcare benefits among small and mid-size businesses.
As the cost of providing employees with healthcare benefits rises (at an average of $500 per employee this year), many employers are choosing to push those costs onto employees in order to maintain budgets.
Amanda Eisenberg from Benefits News takes a look at how increases in employee healthcare (5-10% for many employees) is causing a shift to more self-funding.
Image: Rand
Anna Louie Sussman of The Wall Street Journal focuses on how middle class workers are struggling to pay for healthcare in a time when wages are stagnant, employers are cost-shifting, and deductibles are on the rise.
Michael Z. Stahl recently wrote for Forbes, “a 2014 survey by the National Small Business Association found that small employers spend an average of 13 hours or $1,274 a month just to keep up with Affordable Care Act compliance.”
In this article by Kevin Mattson and Maria Carriedo-Ceniceros for the San Diego Tribune, the authors estimate that there will be a shortage of 90,000 primary care doctors in the next five years. Unfortunately CHCs bear the brunt of this issue and face recruitment/retention issues due to the populations they serve and “lower salaries compared to private hospitals and health systems.”
Erin Mershon wrote in the Washington Health Policy Week in Review, "large employers are expecting employee health benefit costs to rise by five percent in 2017, less than half the increase expected for consumers who purchase health care on the public exchanges created by the 2010 health law."
Kaiser Health News has released an article by Michelle Andrews, discussing the trend of self-funding among smaller organizations. "Instead of buying a health insurance policy to cover their workers, a growing number of small and midsized companies are opting to pay their employees’ medical claims directly."
Bob Herman writes for Modern Healthcare, “The U.S. healthcare system spent $3.2 trillion in 2015, or almost $10,000 for every person, according to the latest federal projections."
Dan Mangan recently wrote about Obamacare for CNBC, stating that "There were no significant differences in the percentages of adults getting or being offered health insurance through an employer."
