Time For Working Americans to Get Their Annual Pay Cut.

Again, employees will pay more for health benefits in 2024. To restore trust, employers must take action.

The new Aflac ad featuring Deion Sanders and Nick Saban is the latest sign our health care system has jumped the shark.

The ad features Deion, the NFL Hall of Famer and coach of the Colorado Buffaloes, my alma mater; and Alabama coach Nick Saban. They’re talking about “gaps” in health care coverage. “The expenses that health insurance doesn’t cover,” Saban says. 

Their solution? Buy an additional insurance policy, from Aflac, to cover those “gaps” in your regular insurance. 

In other words: Your health insurance is so bad you need to buy more health insurance.  

The timing of the Alfac ads is darkly on point. This is open enrollment season, when working Americans pick a health plan for 2024 – and get their annual pay cut in the form of higher premiums and deductibles, and reduced benefits.

The average premium has climbed to more than $24,000 for a family and $8,300 for a single employee, according to the recent Kaiser Family Foundation employer health benefits survey. On average that’s 7 percent higher than last year’s premiums. Some workers will see their premiums rise more than 10 or even 20 percent! 

Health care costs have been rising this way for decades, but that doesn’t mean it must stay that way. The ongoing increase is largely due to the inaction of a powerful stakeholder: Employers. They’ve been feeding their employees’ paychecks to the health care industry wolves. 

Employers have acted impotent for so long that I can hear the skeptics mocking me: Employers are powerful? Yes! But they’re like the nerds who haven’t yet realized they’re superheroes. 

Employers control the oxygen the health care industry needs to breathe: the cash. They have the power because they have the money. But they behave in the world of employee benefits like a fearful kid getting bullied on the playground.   

I wrote Never Pay the First Bill because I wanted to show working Americans and their employers that they don’t have to settle for the same painful cost increases. We’re seeing a movement of employers who aren’t settling for the status quo. They’re teaming up with savvy advisors and redesigning their health benefits – resulting in BETTER benefits for employees at a LOWER price. 

(Don’t believe me? C’mon – read the book!)

It’s inspiring to see these enlightened employers stand up for themselves and their employees. But sadly they are in the minority. Most employers have been picking dandelions.

This failure by these employers to protect employee compensation may violate their fiduciary duty under the federal ERISA law. It’s also doing tremendous harm to the relationship between employers and their workers. It’s a betrayal of trust. 

Fortunately there is a way forward for these yet-to-be activated employers. I love the framework for taking action that my friend Cory Sheer laid out in his new book, “Closing the Trust Gap: Taking Action on What Matters Most for Leaders, Teams, and Organizations.” Cory points to three building blocks of trust that leaders can put into place to restore trust in their organizations: Competency, Problem-Solving and Care for Others. 

When it comes to health benefits, each of these building blocks poses a failure and an opportunity for the typical employer. I’ll hit each of them here: 

Building Block of Trust #1: Competency

“An organization ceases to be competitive if the people and practices of the organization are not competent,” Cory writes. 

It sounds harsh to blame employers too much here. They didn’t start their businesses or organizations to deliver health benefits. But like it or not, they’ve found themselves in the health care business when it comes to providing employee benefits. The stakes are too high for them to remain incompetent. 

What can they do? Get educated! Read my book or Dr. Marty Makary’s excellent book, “The Price We Pay.” (I edited Marty’s book and it’s EXCELLENT.)

HR people can complete my video curriculum, The Never Pay Pathway, for SHRM continuing education credit. 

Employers also build competency by working with a savvy health benefits advisor.

It’s a lot to learn, but savvy employers are building on their health care knowledge every day. Build your competency!

Building Block of Trust #2: Problem-Solving

“Problem-solving results from a clear, consistent and disciplined process,” Cory writes. “And part of that process is a willingness to change.” 

Offering the same old benefits and passing more costs to your employees is not problem-solving. Let’s count some ways employers can be health benefits problem-solvers: 

1. Get connected to a savvy benefits advisor who will work on behalf of the employer and employees - someone not under the control of the health insurance industry. If possible, pay the advisor directly, rather than have their money go through the insurance carrier and other vendors.

2. Obtain your broker compensation report that’s required under the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 (CAA) and scrutinize it. The report is required to show all the direct and indirect compensation your broker is making from your group health plan. Now ask yourself: Is your broker more loyal to you or to the vendors cutting him the checks? 

3. The CAA also banned gag clauses, which previously protected insurers from sharing claims data with employers. Employers should immediately obtain their plan data and see how much they’ve been overpaying. Health plans typically pay exponentially more than they should for health care services. So check the accuracy and prices of those claims. A competent vendor can help with this. 

4. Consider adding direct contracting to your plan, so you pay clinicians directly for their services – cutting out the insurance middlemen. 

5. Add nurse navigation services to your plan to help your employees find the right care at the right time for the right price. 

There are many other ways to become problem solvers. And they work! Get on it! 

Building Block of Trust #3: Care For Others

I know most employers really do care about their employees, but they too often serve them health benefits slop that’s priced like prime rib. Their failure to become competent problem-solvers has, functionally, been entirely uncaring for their workforce. The costs have gone up, year after year, and the employers have passed the cost on to their workforce. We have about 100 million Americans burdened by medical debt - and many of them are insured. We have people avoiding health care and rationing medication because of the cost. Employers must do better. 

An important way to care for the workforce is to provide health literacy education. My book is a great starting place. I’m also available for employee education webinars. And my Never Pay Pathway health literacy video curriculum is designed to train the workforce, so employees understand how they can be engaged and protected from unreasonable health care costs.  

Employers who redesign their health benefits restore the trust with their employees. Companies that have deployed the tactics I write about here are reducing the cost of their health benefits by 30 percent or more - while improving benefits. Some are even paying a dividend back to the employees that’s paid out of the money they’re saving. That builds trust. 

Now is the time to start. Make changes in 2024 that will ensure your employees never need that ridiculous Aflac insurance product to get insured against their crappy insurance coverage. I love Coach Prime, but I’m not with him on this one!

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Let me show your employees how to save big money on health care

I love helping people understand how easy it can be to save big money by becoming savvy health care consumers. Are you a benefits consultant or HR person or employer? Let’s book a session with your employees so they’re equipped.

My one-hour webinar teaches employees how to avoid unreasonable price variation, how to save money on common tests and treatments and operations, how to check their medical bills for inaccuracies and overcharges and much more. I also leave time for Q&A so they can get questions answered on the spot.

The sessions are lively and a ton of fun, and my reviews are great:

• “I feel this is probably the best presentation on health care that I have ever attended. I would recommend this to anyone.”

• “This webinar was so helpful! I learned quite a few things that will help me navigate the healthcare system more effectively!”

I’m booking employee education webinars now for 2024. Email me at marshall@marshallallen.com if you’re interested.

The Never Pay Pathway Health Care Literacy Curriculum

I love to see working Americans have their mindset flipped by effective health literacy education. Our health care system isn’t broken. It was designed this way.

But employees are not powerless.

The Never Pay Pathway is my health literacy video curriculum that educates and empowers employees. The videos are an ENGAGING resource that will save money for your employees and their families - and your health plan. Let’s stop overpaying for our health care, shall we? Email me at neverpay@marshallallen.com for more information.