Going forward, and anticipating the future with Health Care Reform, many small businesses are looking for creative options to save money and yet offer good coverage for their employees.
Here is one such creative solution.
United Health has a new plan called Multi-Choice, and it has been getting positive press, such as this article in the Puget Sound Business Journal.
The company can purchase one of two packages, each of which has multiple benefit options. The employees can choose their coverage from a variety of copay and deductible levels. The employer contribution is a set amount for each employee; the employee contribution will vary depending on the plan that they chose.
New employees can come to the company and elect a plan that is similar to their old plan. The business can grow and change, and within this one package offer options to all of their employees.
This is a win-win for both companies and their workers. It provides predictable health care costs for the company, and choice of the amount of coverage to each and every worker.
Showing posts with label health insurance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label health insurance. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Friday, October 30, 2009
Most Bankruptcies caused by Medical Bills
Outrageous Stories
This is an amazing number, and hopefully will be one thing addressed by any health care reform: in America 62% of people who are declaring bankruptcy are having to do it because of their medical bills.
Are all of these people without health insurance?
No.
Fully 75% of them do have health insurance, but needed costly measures that weren’t covered in their policy.
This New York Times article tells of a computer security specialist who had to go to the hospital and found that most of his treatment was excluded by his insurance. He and his wife had to declare bankruptcy.
Or look at the case of a middle-class couple who had to declare bankruptcy after she had breast cancer and he had bypass surgery, on this CBS The Early Show with Harry Smith. Their health insurance only covered about 10% of the bills.
The first thing we need to do is read the fine print of our health insurance policies!
If they are not enough to cover a catastrophic accident or critical illness, we need some additional insurance to cover those catastrophes.
This is an amazing number, and hopefully will be one thing addressed by any health care reform: in America 62% of people who are declaring bankruptcy are having to do it because of their medical bills.
Are all of these people without health insurance?
No.
Fully 75% of them do have health insurance, but needed costly measures that weren’t covered in their policy.
This New York Times article tells of a computer security specialist who had to go to the hospital and found that most of his treatment was excluded by his insurance. He and his wife had to declare bankruptcy.
Or look at the case of a middle-class couple who had to declare bankruptcy after she had breast cancer and he had bypass surgery, on this CBS The Early Show with Harry Smith. Their health insurance only covered about 10% of the bills.
The first thing we need to do is read the fine print of our health insurance policies!
If they are not enough to cover a catastrophic accident or critical illness, we need some additional insurance to cover those catastrophes.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
A Tale of Two Startups
The Bust
Recently I got a call from a woman who needed to talk about health insurance for her family.
“My husband’s company is folding, so we are not going to have health insurance through the company anymore. It was a high-tech, mobile communications company, and he helped to start it. They have a great product, and they were doing well, but the economy just hit them hard.”
It turned out that she was not as worried as I thought she might be. He had been doing these types of ventures for 15 years, and she was used to the changes. Also, he knows a lot of people in the industry so she sounded confident that he would land on his feet somewhere.
However, we did have to do a bit of research to find a solution to their family’s health insurance. She needs certain prescription drugs, but to get a family plan that has a rich prescription drug coverage would cost double what she was budgeting to pay. We found out that she could order her medication from Canada at a fraction of the cost of covering it here, and her doctor confirmed that this would work fine. The important thing was that her family did not have a gap in coverage, so there won’t be any questions of pre-existing conditions.
The Boom
Soon after that, another call came in, from a friend involved in a new startup.
“Bengt, I volunteered to be the one in the group to take care of the health insurance. Can you look into it for me?” he asked.
“Sure,” I answered, “I’ll do the work for you. And it doesn’t cost you anything extra!”
These are six guys on the other end of the cycle, with a big idea, full of hope, some angel financing already in, and working out of the founder’s home. While some companies are cutting back on health insurance, they are setting it up before they had even turned a profit.
Their big idea is to help people maximize the profitability of their websites (check them out at http://www.bigdoor.com/ ). Since they already had become members of the Washington Technology Industry Association, I was able to get them a great deal for their health insurance through the employee benefit trust run by the WTIA. So now all these young guys have great health benefits and some life insurance as well.
With all the other challenges and changes they are facing to build their new startup, at least they have the peace of mind that having health and life insurance provides. I look forward to them doing great things in the near future!
Recently I got a call from a woman who needed to talk about health insurance for her family.
“My husband’s company is folding, so we are not going to have health insurance through the company anymore. It was a high-tech, mobile communications company, and he helped to start it. They have a great product, and they were doing well, but the economy just hit them hard.”
It turned out that she was not as worried as I thought she might be. He had been doing these types of ventures for 15 years, and she was used to the changes. Also, he knows a lot of people in the industry so she sounded confident that he would land on his feet somewhere.
However, we did have to do a bit of research to find a solution to their family’s health insurance. She needs certain prescription drugs, but to get a family plan that has a rich prescription drug coverage would cost double what she was budgeting to pay. We found out that she could order her medication from Canada at a fraction of the cost of covering it here, and her doctor confirmed that this would work fine. The important thing was that her family did not have a gap in coverage, so there won’t be any questions of pre-existing conditions.
The Boom
Soon after that, another call came in, from a friend involved in a new startup.
“Bengt, I volunteered to be the one in the group to take care of the health insurance. Can you look into it for me?” he asked.
“Sure,” I answered, “I’ll do the work for you. And it doesn’t cost you anything extra!”
These are six guys on the other end of the cycle, with a big idea, full of hope, some angel financing already in, and working out of the founder’s home. While some companies are cutting back on health insurance, they are setting it up before they had even turned a profit.
Their big idea is to help people maximize the profitability of their websites (check them out at http://www.bigdoor.com/ ). Since they already had become members of the Washington Technology Industry Association, I was able to get them a great deal for their health insurance through the employee benefit trust run by the WTIA. So now all these young guys have great health benefits and some life insurance as well.
With all the other challenges and changes they are facing to build their new startup, at least they have the peace of mind that having health and life insurance provides. I look forward to them doing great things in the near future!
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