Employers Don’t Pay – You Do
Employers don’t pay a dime towards employee health insurance. Employees pay the full boat but don’t realize it. Try explaining that to the police and fireman union during the next negotiation cycle.
We Give Then Take
Employers factor in fringe benefits in the salary equation. “I’ll pay you $75,000 but I’m going to take $10,000 of it to pay for your health insurance benefits. And I’m taking full credit because I am a kind and loving employer who cares about you.”
Employees and management should partner towards seeking more cost effective health benefits. Both have the same interests. Both win when the other one does. Lower health care costs can mean higher wages. Less money recklessly spent through inflated health care costs memorialized within managed care contracts you can’t see nor audit leaves more for Friday’s paycheck.
But it takes a move away from failed status quo health plans of the past 40 years to slow the theft. Employers that say they care about their employees and mean it are the ones who are willing to adopt change by moving away from status quo health plans. Those employers realize lower costs can be passed on to employees in higher wages and better benefits.
Plan sponsors clinging to status quo health plans are lying when they say they “take good care of our employees.”
Meanwhile hell-bent status quo plan sponsors continue to pass on out-of control health care costs with monies earned from their workers. Bless their cotton picking hearts……
When labor and management sit on the same side of the table good things can happen. It’s all about how profit is distributed.
