Risk & Business Magazine California Fall 2017 | Page 8

HEALTH INSURANCE
BY: SAM WALTER, REGIONAL
PRACTICE LEADER, ROUNDSTONE
Treat Health Insurance Like Any
Other Product
W
hen it comes to
business expenses,
every owner is probably
aware of one fact:
health insurance
isn’t cheap. In fact, it’s one of the top
three expenses for employers, and it’s
impossible to ignore. Unfortunately,
owners often view healthcare as
something unique, often because of the
human element involved. They view it as
a benefit that they are providing to their
employees rather than what they should
actually be viewing it as: a product in a
marketplace that can be bought just like
any other supply in the chain. Changing
your way of looking at healthcare in your
company is the first step to escaping the
rampant price increases and increasing
your bottom line profit.
Everyone knows the Affordable Care Act
(ACA) was enacted years ago and brought
along with it a number of regulations
and mandates. Regardless of how you
feel about these changes or the relative
success of what ACA was able to do, it
did succeed marvelously in one area: it
made healthcare a topic which cannot be
ignored by employers anymore. With a
threat of looming regulation or penalties
hanging over your head, you have to
wake up and pay attention to the current
healthcare landscape. Even if the ACA
were to go away, that bell can’t be unrung
at this point.
Now, healthcare is a top three expense
8
for employers. For single family coverage,
the cost is approaching $19,000 a year.
Not only that, healthcare is experiencing
run