The Business of Healthcare

With the recent resurgence of the ramping up of repealing the healthcare law, a question was asked as to why business would not want to relieve themselves of the most expensive costs on their balance sheets.  It makes us all consider that if there were a way to increase a businesses bottom line without cutting personnel and quality, why would not all businesses choose it?  The answer may be more marketing statement than a money question.

Small business health insurance may take a huge chunk out of your revenue, but benefits often attract better employees and help retain existing workers. Satisfied, healthy employees are more likely to help your business grow. (Tiare Rath, 5 Ways to Reduce Small Business Health Insurance Costs).  Which may be the very reason that so many businesses choose not to support a single-payer government system which would relieve them of the entire cost of healthcare for their employees.  It could be as simple as being able to use benefits as a marketing tool to attract and keep the best and the brightest.  This could be especially true between small businesses because it may be the only thing separating you from your competitors.  Image a workforce that desires diabetes coverage and you being the only company whose benefit package offers it.  Healthcare cost for a family of four is typically around eight hundred ($800) dollars per month and if small businesses can convince employees to contribute possibly half of that then it will certainly be a win for both parties.  The healthier and happier an employee is, the more productive that they become and that, we all know, adds nice profits to any businesses bottom line.

This mostly only applies to small businesses because it is highly unlikely that any small business can compete with the larger ones.  The main advantage that larger ones have is this new fixation with creating wellness programs.  Wellness programs like those at Motorola Inc and Caterpillar saves their company millions but is way too costly to start up for the mom and pop store in your neighborhood.  It is well documented that prevention care is a money-saver and we could all benefit from a system where we are trying to detect diseases earlier and prevent some of the most costly ones but for today’s small business owners, it is well outside of their budgets.  It should be mentioned as well that employees being able to maintain or keep their coverage when they leave that business may not be the appropriate marketing strategy many businesses look to in order to remain competitive and draw in the best the workforce has to offer.