(continued...)

 

Other than the provision of catastrophic care, the plan does have two humble virtues. One is that employees have an actual health care insurance card. They may end up paying most or all of the bill when they go for care, but the card
assures them routine access. The second advantage is that the bills they do pay come with a small provider write-off.

In the silver lining department, Schierman readily admits that high ded-uctibles have helped make her and her employees “absolutely” more prudent in their utilization of the healthcare system and more responsible about their own health.

She has entertained the idea of employing Medical Savings Accounts, but for a small business owner with much else to do, she found their introduction too complicated to justify.

Although Schierman is not exactly sure why, and hesitates to ask, her premium costs have been constant, even declining, over the last several years.

Jonathan Cohn, president and CEO of the Yarco Companies, takes his responsibility to his employees seriously. A few
years ago, in fact, Yarco was honored to receive the Kansas City Business Ethics Award, awarded by the Society of
Financial Service professionals.

Cohn is a serious student of the healthcare industry. With some 550 employees in his real estate management company, he almost has to be. As an overall strategy, Cohn believes in partnering with the best in the business. This includes not only in-house support, but also the broker and the group that provides coverage.

“This is a battle that everyone is fighting,” observes Cohn, “but it cannot be fought without good advice.”

From there, Cohn’s strategy grows progressively more specific. As a first step, he believes it essential to share information with employees about the healthcare environment that they and he collectively face. As a second step, he
thinks it necessary to make employees aware of their health coverage choices and the consequences of those choices.

And as third step, employees are asked to assume some responsibility for their lifestyle choices. Cohn encourages
them by providing a wide range of wellness and smoke cessation programs, but like any employer, he can only do so much. Employees have minds of their own. Some choose to embrace a wellness culture. Some don’t.

As all employers understand, the collective culture of the healthcare environment tends to discourage individual incentive.

Consumers pay for gas out of their own pockets, but they pool resources to pay for heathcare, and this inevitably
dilutes employee responsibility. Still, Yarco seeks all the good counsel he can find, because he and most of his employees
know the good fight has to be fought. So does Melissa Wood. She nicely summarizes the imperative for creative resistance to the spiraling price of healthcare. “If you just accept the fact that your costs are rising,” says Wood, “they will continue to rise.”