Affordable Health Coverage Versus Employer Based Medical Benefits

For years the system of medical insurance in the United States has been predominantly a system based on employer paid medical benefits. But with over 47 million American currently without insurance it is obviously a system that needs changing. Changes in insurance regulations that are targeting a more consumer driven approach to medical insurance are actually making affordable health insurance options attractive to both employers and employees. With new programs already in place and more changes to come that will offer incentives to employers to pay employees in pre-tax dollars to obtain their own affordable health coverage, mean that even now most people can get affordable health coverage on their own that might actually cost less than employer based medical coverage. And that is good news for employers and employees.

According to a recent cover story in Businessweek Magazine over the next 5 years more than 30 million people will sign up for some kind of consumer directed healthcare. What that means is that now is the time for you to become educated about your affordable health coverage options, because if you are not now in the market for affordable individual health insurance you soon will be. Paul Zane Pilzer, Author of the book, The New Health Insurance Solution, says that a family of four can save up to $5000.00 a year on healthcare costs by getting away from traditional employer based health coverage and switching to affordable health coverage they can now purchase on their own. What well known economist Pilzer wants every American to know is that we are on the cusp of an affordable health coverage revolution, and it is now possible more than ever before to get better, cheaper, and more practical insurance than you are getting from your employer. According to economists like Pilzer, reliance on employer based medical benefits can be the greatest threat to a families financial ruin, and the time to develop a new system of affordable health coverage in this country that does not tie health benefits to a job - so that loss of work does not mean loss of coverage - is long since overdue.

Financial analysts agree, and point out that the over 1 million medical bankruptcies filed last year were largely in part to a loss of job linked medical benefits. Ironically many of these could have been avoided if people only knew that affordable health coverage options existed that could actually cost half of what similar coverage under an employer sponsored policy does. The trend is good news for employers as well, who also are beginning to understand how cost effective it is for them, and how it helps their bottom line to treat each of their employees as an individual and help them to acquire affordable health coverage, instead of designing a cookie cutter approach to medical coverage that supposed to cover all employees exactly the same. When companies save on health insurance everybody wins. The savings can translate into higher wages, less layoffs and other employee benefits, or saving passed on to the consumer in terms of manufactured goods, it has been estimated that $1500.00 is added to the price tag of every GM vehicle is to cover the cost of employee medical coverage.

According to insurance professionals, if people would only open their eyes to the options around them, they would soon see that no one needs to go without affordable medical coverage.