First Step in Reducing Health Care Costs:
Calculate Your Potential Savings
Everyone acknowledges that greater personal financial responsibility is integral to containing the cost of health care. When ineligible dependents are left on employer health plans, as opposed to being shifted to appropriate alternatives (i.e. Government Assistance or individual insurance coverage), we are contributing to the national health care crisis.
“We have made cost control a coequal objective, just as important as the expansion of insurance coverage, which has traditionally been the dominant goal,” said Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff. “The entire discussion has to be centered on controlling or reducing costs.”
Today’s market conditions demand that organizations and their health plans identify and adopt readily available cost containment opportunities.
Did you know that for most employers health insurance expenses are the fastest growing cost component?
- In 2006, the annual average premium cost for family coverage was $12,106.
- In 2007, the average percentage of premium paid by the employer for family coverage is 72%.
- In 2008, health care costs for U.S. employers rose by 6%, which is faster than inflation or wage increases. In dollar terms this means that gross health care expenditure increased by an average of $526 per employee, to an average total cost of $9,144.
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● Eligibility Case Study
● What Can Go Wrong?
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Notably, the survey results suggest that the average cost increase would have been closer to 8%, or about $200 per employee more, if not for employer efforts to aggressively manage benefit program performance.
Did you know that top performing companies on average paid 16% less (or $1,668) than the $10,200 total cost per active employee reported by low-performing companies.
While the cost of medical services largely determines the cost of health insurance; studies show that organizations efforts to manage their costs due result in sizable cost savings.
Plan-Smart ROI Calculator
Sources: 2008 Towers Perrin Health Care Study. The Kaiser Family Foundation And Health Research and Educational Trust Employer Health Benefits 2007 Annual Survey |
