By Bill Rusteberg
No one can argue ICHRA market share is growing driven by market demand. Statistics prove it. No question about it. There’s a clear winner in that debate.
But what’s driving market demand for yet another health care financing scheme promising elusive solutions? Are brokers driving demand or reacting to it for self-preservation and continued relevance?
Brokers generally agree ICHRA doesn’t lower health care costs and offers nothing special in most other respects in terms of benefits and never ending premium cost increases.
So why would any employer embrace another health plan that doesn’t lower cost, has status quo benefits and promises double digit rate increases year after year? They are doing that already so what’s the difference? ICHRA is just another form of the same rinse and repeat.
There must be something else that makes ICHRA different and attractive to a growing number of frustrated plan sponsors and their trusted broker partners. Brokers are market messengers and valued advisors for employers they serve. Surely market demand for ICHRA must be driven by brokers.
Or is it driven by employers whose financial backs are against the wall, who are under continuous pressure of onerous government mandates enforced under the threat of punishment if they fail to follow government diktats enforced by bureaucrats armed with guns and badges?
ICHRA gets employers out of the health insurance business by limiting employer responsibility and caps employer contributions.
Brokers don’t want their employer clients to get out of the health insurance business. That’s not their business model. They understand ICHRA makes brokers less relevant and a threat to continued riches. When a client asks about ICHRA most brokers sell against it. “It doesn’t lower costs! Your employees are too dumb to pick and choose the right plan for themselves! There are fewer provider choices! Rates are too high! Group insurance is better” they say.
ICHRA market demand is driven by employers who want out of the health insurance business and is not broker driven. When a broker doesn’t offer ICHRA options another one will. The fear of losing a client drives broker behavior. It’s employers driving market demand and more brokers are learning it wise to follow.
