Make Your Move to a Private Exchange

Make Your Move to a Private Exchange

Private Personal Information Sensitive Documents Records FolderWhat do some corporate retirement planners know that you don’t? There’s gold in them there private health exchanges! Savings to US Companies who move their retirees to private health care exchanges could be in the trillions, according to some analysts.

Just over a year ago the concept of moving employees and retirees to a private health care exchange was foreign to most businesses. The idea that a defined contribution would provide employees and retirees with choices and enable them to make decisions that best suit their lifestyle and needs was just a glimmer in every plan administrator’s eyes. But private exchanges are here and they are here to stay.

The only question business owners have to answer is – when are you going to make the switch?

A recent Deloitte survey of employers, Private insurance exchanges “Outlook is good”, notes that of those employers interested in shifting to a private exchange, 62% say they will do so in the next one-to-two years. According to the survey employers generally agree that private exchanges will “contain employer health care costs, simplify the employer’s benefit administration role, and offer employees more value.”

Still not convinced?

The year 2018 is looming and will be here before you know it. Now is the time to assess your current health care plans and determine if you will be hit with a 40% excise tax on your existing plan. High premium plans will be penalized. The current threshold for high-cost plans is $10,200 for individual coverage, and $27,500 for family coverage. These thresholds may change by 2018.

The Kaiser Family Foundation recently discovered in their 2015 Employer Health Benefits Survey that one in five employers (with 200 or more workers) who recently conducted an analysis of their plans found that their plan with the largest enrollment will exceed the threshold amount and therefore be subject to the tax.

The benefits of private exchanges are numerous and we’ve outlined them in detail here in our blog in the past. (See: Don’t Be a Holdout) The next few years will certainly contain countless more surveys on employer habits and the health care landscape, but now is the time to act, now is the time to assess and now is the time to switch to a private exchange.