Most landscape contractors don’t offer employees any health benefits. Employers can gain a competitive edge by offering benefits to their employees to attract talent and improve retention. In our prior articles, we established some common language and understanding for how health insurance works. We also considered some of the causes for the ever-increasing costs of health insurance. Now lets look at what can be done about it. 

First and foremost: be a good consumer. Make sure you seek coverage from healthcare providers within your network.  Understand your health insurance plan and how much your care may actually cost. Second, insurance premium rates tend to be cheaper for employer plans than for individual plans. Employees are looking to their employers to help them secure affordable healthcare. If you are an employer, look into securing a health insurance plan for your company. If you are an employee, talk to your employer about options and if they do offer a plan then be sure to participate! 

One of the most exciting developments in health insurance has been the ability to use alternative funding strategies to help manage the costs of health insurance. Alternative or self-funding strategies have commonly only been available to very large companies but are now available to many small businesses. Self-funding solutions may be available for your company with as few as four participating employees. Affordable health insurance options may be more accessible than you think!

In 2018, Forbes published an article outlining the connections between employee benefits and employee health, engagement and loyalty. Employees often value the quality of their benefits as much or more than their salary. Similarly, employees are more likely to stay with an employer that offers benefits because they depend on their employer for quality coverage. If you already offer a plan, then you are ahead of the curve. It may be well worth your time to review your plan design with a broker to make sure you are getting good value and have a plan that aligns to your company’s unique needs. If you do not have a company benefit plan, please reach out to a trusted broker to learn more about how to get started!

Reference: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeslacouncil/2018/07/03/the-four-advantages-of-offering-health-and-wellness-benefits-to-employees/#2d998870646a

Read the previous story in this series.

Kevin Wood is a Benefits Consultant with Quandary Insurance.