Sign in
Globally, most companies continue to complain about soaring healthcare costs. According to credible sources, firms incur huge losses due to increased medical costs for their employees (Buchmueller, Carey, & Levy, 2013). In an effort to lower the healthcare costs incurred by businesses, numerous strategies have been explored. According to Christianson, Tu, and Samuel (2011), employer-sponsored insurance is typically viewed as an efficient method for businesses to reduce the healthcare expenditures of their employees. However, as the authors say, the plan has not been fully implemented, and it remains to be seen whether the future solutions will be the most effective.
As companies contend with systemic and recurrent economic downturns, attempts have been made to adopt and implement health improvements. Historically, numerous employees adopted consumer-driven health plans, which referred to high deductible plans for premium savings rather than user engagement promotion (Liu et al., 2013). Given the frequency of recessions in contemporary economies, however, executives have chosen to impose policies that shift medical costs to employees. In this instance, the methods involve the development and execution of benefit designs that allow and prioritize cost-sharing systems. Consequently, consumer-driven health plans continue to gain popularity and are anticipated to be widely adopted by businesses (Christianson, Tu, & Samuel, 2011). Particularly, various products of employee self-insurance are the most successful techniques for reducing company expenditures.
However, one could argue why the plan must be effective. Self-insurance schemes would be more appealing to employees and, therefore, easier to adopt. Similarly, businesses would strive to encourage the introduction of the programs with the long-term objective of reducing operating costs associated with high employee medical expenses (Claxton et al., 2013). In essence, it concurs with Christianson and the team’s brief that these employer-sponsored health insurance techniques could be utilized effectively to reduce medical expenditures for companies.
