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If the many job advertisements teach us anything about the workplace, it’s that passion for a career isn’t the only motivator. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in December 2023, job openings numbers stayed steady at around 9 million available positions in the US. Even so, the country still saw faltering job stability among hundreds of thousands of Americans working part-time due to economic issues despite wanting full-time positions.
Since the start of the pandemic, many sources have detailed a control-related tug-of-war between employers and their employees. The commentary about the workplace family doesn’t seem to hold up when the job doesn’t offer enough for the workers to stay. Employers need to offer benefits to their employees to motivate job reliability and professional steadiness.
One of the reasons many people seek full-time employment includes health insurance. How did the connection between employment and health insurance start, and what can be done to make job opportunities more appealing?
To find the connection, we must go back to World War II, particularly the 1940s. With a large portion of the working population called off to fight, employers were battling to fill their positions with the best minds left behind. While potential employees held a substantial amount of power, they were also living in a post-Depression world, and the memories made many seek employment seriously.
At the time, the IRS — back then called the Bureau of Internal Revenue — allowed health insurance policies to be tax-free for employers offering it to their employees. Considering the illnesses that were widespread back then, like polio, employees considered gaining access to this insurance a huge plus. As such, many potential employees flocked toward positions that offered health insurance as part of their benefits package.
Employers obtained high career stability, with many workers staying in jobs for long periods due to the health insurance and retirement benefits. With these workers increasing company productivity, they began seeing better economic results. However, the IRS began to try reducing the tax-exempt status of employer-sponsored health insurance to gain tax funds.
In response, President Eisenhower signed bills to revise the Internal Revenue Codes, ensuring the tax-free employer health insurance remained. As such, his ruling locked in the unique relationship between employment and health insurance in the U.S.
Theoretically, the relationship between employment and health insurance should be positive, considering the benefits it offers employers and employees alike.
However, the plans at the time left unemployed Americans by the wayside, often without efficient medical care or methods to pay for it. The connection between health insurance and employment also created a rough power dynamic, in which employees had to please employers to ensure their families stayed ensured. At that time, losing your job meant losing health insurance for you and your family.
Employers could also change insurers and the benefits offered on employee policies. Considering the confusion many people have regarding HMOs, PPOs, and EPOs today, network complexities were even harder to understand back then. Thus, employees became dissatisfied with the lack of control over their healthcare, a sentiment that continues today.
As mentioned, employees seek more than fulfilling their work dreams when looking for employment. Despite the dissatisfaction with how the system works, about 51% of working Americans feel trapped at their job due to the health benefits, according to PR Newswire. Almost one-third of all workers who left their jobs did so because of the lack of good health insurance options.
So, to lock in your company’s job stability, you should offer good health insurance, right? Yes, but that’s only part of the equation. The insurance your business offers should also keep employee expenses in mind.
Working Americans generally do not receive health insurance from the government, like through Medicare or Medicaid. As such, the government has less control over the medical industry and the costs accrued from its increasing invoices.
With medical care and drug prices increasing, employers often have to deal with the increased cost of covering their employees. However, many companies opt to take the additional expenses for insurance premiums out of the employee’s paycheck or push the expenses to out-of-pocket costs.
From 2000 to 2019, workplace health insurance saw several drastic changes, according to KFF:
All these metrics mean employees end up paying more for their health insurance and receive less out of the plan in general. However, some individual non-employer plan premiums can cost anywhere from $170 to $500 or more with high deductibles or out-of-pocket costs. They also tend to sign with HMO plans as their only option, sometimes receiving no coverage for out-of-network hospital visits.
In a world still reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic, fewer people than ever want to end up in a medical emergency without insurance. Theoretically, your company will flourish if you offer good health insurance. So, why should you mind employee health expenses when deciding on an insurance company or policy?
Your employees essentially work as the lifeblood of your company, large or small. Some unethical businesses have used health insurance offers to try to enforce a mindset that employees can’t leave. However, this mindset tends to greatly damage workforce assurance and occupational stability, often leading to high turnover rates.
Frankly, if the employee joins and the health insurance offer isn’t as they’d like, some will leave for greener pastures. You now have a snapshot of what your employees consider as they work. Companies that do so tend to experience higher career stability because the employees experience more employment security.
What do employees want out of their health insurance?
Considering common household expenses, employees look for an employer-sponsored plan that doesn’t lead to excessive costs. Employees have life goals aside from work, including affording houses, vehicles, and daily necessities. They may balk at plans that dip too strongly into their paychecks to pay for monthly premiums or ones with high out-of-pocket maximums.
Employees want to know what their plan does, how much they can expect to pay, and who they can see with their plan. They can more easily plan their lives if they know the details of your sponsored health insurance offer.
In keeping transparent about what coverage you offer, you may want to choose a plan or insurance company that mediates between high coverage and expenses. Policies offering widespread availability to various medical care providers, facilities, and treatment options tend to be more popular.
Many employees join a company because of the group health insurance plans they offer. Their significant others, children, and other dependents can gain affordable healthcare through their jobs. Employees who cover their families with employer-sponsored health insurance tend to stay around longer and gather more expertise.
Concerns regarding mental health have increased since the start of the 2019 pandemic. Many health insurance plans also offer behavioral health coverage, allowing employees to seek therapeutic and psychiatric assistance when necessary. Health insurance plans offering both medical and behavioral care have been increasingly popular.
When you offer high-quality health insurance at your company, you can start to see how it improves your business:
When employees feel that you care about them, the feeling generally translates into increased business earnings from their efforts. Offering beneficial, reasonable health insurance to suit their needs tends to be a net positive in business and personal aspects.
Increase your company’s job stability by discovering your employer-sponsored health insurance options with Insurdinary.
We partner with the top health insurance companies in the U.S. to help you look at several options, and decide which suits you best. Increase your job stability with Insurdinary or speak with our customer service team for hands-on, detailed assistance today.