A Look At Health Insurance Over the Years

doctor with woman and daughterAs an employer, you want to outdo the companies that are providing the same services as you, both in and out of the office, but more so, you want to ensure that your employees feel valued. One of the things that contributes more to the wellbeing of your employees is health insurance and the quality of care that your employees are able to provide to their families and receive with health care professionals. Unfortunately, this is not one of the most cost-effective choices to make as a small business owner. As one of the leading PEO companies in New York, we have seen the misfortune that small business go through when trying to provide health insurance on their own, but here is a glimpse of how healthcare has evolved over the last couple of years.

The Average Cost

In the last couple of years, the average cost of health insurance has increased drastically. Studies show that 61 percent of small businesses would love to provide health care insurance to their employees, but have a difficult time affording it. When we start from the bottom and work our way up, it can become even more intimidating. Looking back in 2009, the average cost of $13,375 per employee, currently, the average cost is roughly $28,530 per employee and still increasing. This leaves the employees of small businesses paying an average of $1000+ in deductibles even so. This cost can become outrageous, and figuring out what’s best while still being realistic can prove to be difficult and time-consuming.

A Glance Over the Years

In the 1940’s, tax-free employer health insurance began and was able to provide companies with more affordable insurance for large groups of people. Jump forward only 20 years and we see that employer health insurance becomes universal. Now, with so many advances in medicine and healthcare procedures, health
insurance costs quite a bit and is broken into different types of plans for employees to take advantage of, which
is what makes it so incredibly expensive. Because of these skyrocketing costs, small businesses have a difficult healthinsurancetime finding the funds to pay for insurance. In 2012, when costs began to increase dramatically, there were about 2.3 million small business that did not offer health insurance.

The Toll on an Employee

While this cost is incredibly expensive, the toll that not having health insurance has on your employees can become a matter of just getting by. In a study conducted by Enhance Insurance, 41 percent of working age Americans were found to be either paying off medical bills or have standing medical debt. That is nearly half of the working population that is suffering from the cost of healthcare, even with insurance. Those without insurance have seen to struggle even more so. The same study showed that 18 percent of Americans are uninsured, and that number is quickly rising. Over the last ten years, the number of American individuals without any insurance has gone from 38 million to 52 million and continues to increase as the cost of insurance increases. When you look at the bankruptcies that are being filed, 60 percent of them are due to medical bills, and 75 percent of them were covered with health insurance.

This is truly a service that provides more than you’ll ever be able to know and something that all employees deserve to have, especially when you consider what it could cost all of these individuals in the long run.

How We Can Help

One of the best parts of working with a company like The Medical Link is that we can take the stress out of the process above. As a team of individuals that have plenty of experience in this particular field, we know the ins and outs and can create a plan that suits your budget but provides your employees with the care that they deserve. When you work with us, we will help find the best package for you, but even after that, we will continue to manage this service so that you don’t have to worry about how it’s working and what could be going better: we’ve got that handled.

Get started working with us and you will see that the other PEO services that we offer are something that will also strongly benefit your business.