Abstract
The paper will examine the health care insurance it the United States, their benefits and costs to the employers and companies that provide health insurance to the workers. With rising concerns and raising the costs of the health insurance the companies have made various schemes on which to work on. Some companies provide health care, some do not. The others provide health care, but have different policies and different premiums related to the health risks among the workers. The best way to get into the issue is to look at the broader picture not just on the health care costs but also the effects of providing the health care. The health care can work as a stimulator to recruit more qualified personnel, higher motivation, in lees loss of productivity and overall better climate in the company. The schemes can vary based on every company and many benefits can be provided that will help to achieve the companies’ goals and rise of the profit.
The paper will focus on the economic cost-benefit analysis. It will try to provide the answer to the question: should the company establish a policy of differential premium for life-style-related risks to health or should it adopt a hands-off policy on an employee’s behavior and charge all employees the same premium? Further on, the answer to the question: would that position differs if the costs of health insurance were borne by the state and not by the company, will be provided.
The projected health costs are going to increase by 4.91% in 2016 and in this year the projections about GDP spending on the health will reach 18%. The paper will examine how the rise of the healthcare and insurance coverage affect business (Greg, n.p.). Medicaid expansion had resulted in a significant drop of uninsured residents in various countries. Nearly 29 million of people were still uninsured in the first half of the year in 2015 (The Wall Street Journal, n.p.)
This data can give a company a strategic advantage by providing the workers’ health care which can attract the quality of workers. In the health care in the United States the majority (55%) of workers and employees- 155 million get their health care insurance through their place of work (Capretta & Chen, par.5). Since not all states have imposed the Obamacare which is not mandatory the company can make a strategic advantage out of the situation. Since a cost of the health care are accepted to grow and challenges to ensure healthy workers can be tackled with appointing a chief health officer. The need to prove healthcare to the workers can be seen from the data that shows that 86% of the employees today are overweight and have chronic conditions. That results in around 450 million extra days of work in a year in comparison of the healthy employees. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made a research and the findings showed that American Businesses lose between $150 billion to more than $225 billion in lost productivity. Companies have a unique position to help the individuals and at the same time raise their profits (Agus, n.p.).
It is clear if the person is not in the best health condition the productivity is not on the maximum possible levels. There is also a connection between health, happiness, satisfaction and productivity and that is why every company should provide the health coverage for its employees. There are many ways how to maintain productive and healthy workforce. The advice to the company is therefore not to establish a policy of differential premium for life-style-related risks to health. All employees should be regarded the same. The promotion of health and good habits that result in better health condition within the company are needed. There are different ways to provide that, such as wellness, health plans, offering rewards, collecting and analyzing health data, education or improving the eating habits with healthier food provision in company restaurants.
There were many researches done in this area. A Duke University has come to the conclusion that with health care programs the costs of health care can be reduced. They found out that every dollar spent on the lowering the blood-pressure program saved $1.21, every dollar spent on the program to lower the cholesterol saved $3.39 (Agnus, n.p.). There are many solutions possible and company should be creative in reducing the costs and increasing the profits with healthy and productive workers.
The opinion would not change if the health care was guaranteed from the country. The difference may be only in the scope of provision of benefits. Since then there will be no need to make a cost-benefit analysis and to decide for one or two benefits provisions. It is in all best interests having healthy workers, where no loss of productivity is seen because of the missing from the workplace, where the motivation and productivity is high and results in economic development and rise of the profits. The compensation is made in the companies based on the number of employees and various schemes possible for provision of health insurance.
Works Cited
Agnus, B. David. Saving Corporate Cash by Hiring a Chief Health Officer. Wall Street Journal. 7 Jan. 2016. Web. 9. Feb. 2016.
Capretta, C. James, Chen, J, Lanhee. Instead of ObamaCare: Giving Health-Care Power to the People. Wall Street Journal. 24 Jan. 2016. Web. 9 Feb. 2016.
Scott, Greg. 2016 Health Plans Industry Outlook. Wall Street Journal. 2016. Web. 9 Feb. 2016.
The Wall Street Journal. Gov’t Report: 8 States Had Significant Drop in Uninsured. 9 Feb. 2016. Web. 9 Feb. 2016.
