Consulting with an employee benefit specialist to explore the best ways to provide coverage to employees may result in some counter-intuitive advice. This is a major advantage that such professionals lend to a company and accounts for much of the misunderstanding the companies are responsible for when attempting to provide affordable benefits for a workforce.
One example is the contrast between premiums and deductibles. Many employees prefer to higher premiums and lower deductibles so that if they ever need to use their medical coverage, it will not be tremendously expensive. However, some benefit consultants may advise employers to select high-deductible plans with lower premiums.
This is understandable when one is familiar with facts and figures related to health insurance. According to studies by BLR, 82 percent of workers spent less than $1,000 on medical expenses in 2010. In fact, only 11 percent spent in excess of $2,000. This means that there is an 89 percent chance that any given employee can expect to spend less than $2,000 so there is an opportunity for enormous savings if more of a worker's wage goes to her salary rather than insurance premiums.
