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NEW YORK (MainStreet) — Employers are slashing major medical plan options even more and shifting costs to employees who are forced to find other alternatives such as opening a health savings account (HSA).
Changes in benefits are occurring because 49% of companies said that controlling costs is their top business issue, compared to only 28% in 2011, according to a recent survey from Aflac, a Columbus, Ga. provider of voluntary insurance. The study surveyed 1,856 employers and 5,209 employees at small, medium and large U.S. companies and sheds light on how companies are dealing with health care costs and how it affects workers.
Look the long term deal is to get rid of benefits. Health benefits pensions lots of small companies offer no 401k. The idea that companies will keep offering health benefits. How can I put this in a nice way? It is beyond nuts their going to get rid of work based health benefits. That is why you have seen more temps and part timers and contractors no benefits cost. Health coverage cost keeps going up 7 to 15% a year. This was before the ACA cost have never stopped going up. All the ACA was speed up the time table. So companies that would have dump their health benefits in the next 10 to 15 years. Their just dumping them now. Over the last 20 years companies have been getting rid of benefits. So long to retiree coverage or coverage for the wife and sometimes even family coverage. Companies want to make profits not offer you health benefits. The day will come when few companies will offer health benefits. A very big companies and the government will get them. Everyone else will be on their own. It will happen slowly over the next 20 years. And I agree with Ohio girl it is hardly news it has been going on for 40 years. Less pay and benefits is the way of the future. The nature of work it self will change. Full time jobs with health benefits. They will make up a much smaller part of the job market in the future.
Anything that separates the link between employment and health insurance is a good thing. This isn't exactly a separation... but a move in the right direction.
NJBest we may not often agree but here we do. We need to separate the link between employment and heath insurance. Over the long haul it will be a good thing. It would lead to more job growth. And one would hope some wage growth as well. It was only an accident of history that we have an employer based system. Our current system will not last. The ACA as I pointed out only sped up the time table. One way or the other massive change is coming to healthcare. And the whole idea of work based health benefits. Is going to come to end as we know it. Now the big question is what do we replace it with? Even I have no idea how it will turn out. But change is coming no mater what.
The ACA took us in the wrong direction. It strengthened the relationship between employer and health insurance. Employers are now required by law to provide health insurance benefits to employees. That's absurd.
The ACA did take us in the wrong direction in terms of that. But my feeling is most job growth in the future will be very small companies. Falling under the 50 worker cap rule. They will not have to deal with the ACA. Many companies will keep more workers under 30 hours. They will offshore more workers. You will just have a smaller US based workforce. The use of more temps and part timers. Over the long haul companies will dump their workers into the exchanges. Over the long term the fine is cheaper in the long run. Health care cost keep going up. Only the cost of education has out paced the cost of heath care. Most companies will dump their health care plans over the next 25 years. It just will happen slowly.
The ACA isn't the cause of people losing employer health care. It's a RESPONSE to the problem. Benefits started to disappear years ago. I started to work for a Fortune 100 company in the early 1980s. We never got a single new benefit the entire time I was there. We just lost them. Drip, drip, drip.
Now the big question is what do we replace it with?
Bingo!!!
The fact of the matter is 3 things:
1. The hospitals/pharmacists/doctors/insurance companies still want to make their money, which is heavily dependent on the current healthcare structure we have now.
2. Employers still need healthy employees to maintain top productivity.
3. Employees still want to remain healthy if they want to live a long, fruitful life.
So ultimately, this will all eventually lead to a universal/single-payer health insurance system anyway (unless we want to become some third world country were poor health standards and a low quality of life is the rule, or essentially a big Detroit). Thus, employers can either contribute to their employee's health insurance through higher tax bills or through their own companies at their own expense.
The ACA isn't the cause of people losing employer health care. It's a RESPONSE to the problem. Benefits started to disappear years ago. I started to work for a Fortune 100 company in the early 1980s. We never got a single new benefit the entire time I was there. We just lost them. Drip, drip, drip.
I don't think anyone was suggesting that the ACA was the cause of people losing employer healthcare. The discussion was around how the ACA is moving this nation in the wrong direction in terms of employer health benefits.
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This has been going on for 40 years. It's hardly news.
