Employers will no longer be plan sponsors. Providers and health plans will be customer-driven and extremely personalized in their marketing. Technology will be the vehicle to educate, market, enroll, schedule the change agent of tomorrow. It s all coming soon to an employer and patients near you. You re right.
Employers can deduct the cost of health benefits.
Right now, employees cannot. Pending legislative proposals may change that with recommendations of tax credits or tax deductibility, leveling the playing field to include the self-employed and the unemployed. Or perhaps employers will transfer funds into individual, tax-deductible trust funds from which employees can spend monies only for health insurance products. Traditionally, the best way to spread risk has been through group purchasing. Options being explored include purchasing coalitions for individual consumers and voucher systems managed by external agents.