The Future of Health Insurance Should not Be Based on the Past

Can you think of any business that is being run or service being provided the exact same way it was 10 or 15 years ago? Let alone a generation ago? If that were the case we would still be watching only 12 channels on a Black and White TV set, and sticking our fingers in a dial on a rotary phone. And yet despite the incredible changes that have occurred in every other aspect of our lives, we are still expected to approach healthcare and health insurance exactly the way our parents did, and even their parents before them.

Indeed for generations health insurance became synonymous with "health benefits" and that meant something that was provided by your employer. But today's workforce is as different from a generation ago as today's High Definition Plasma TV's are from Mom and Dad's old "Philco".

There are far more people self employed, or working for small businesses who do not or cannot afford to provide medical insurance as a benefit of employment. There are less and less businesses and companies offering employee paid health benefits, and more and more part time and contract workers who do not qualify for them, and either go without insurance, or purchase private health insurance. Recent studies have also found that for many in today's workforce unlike that of a generation ago, low-cost health insurance is not the most attractive benefit to a job. Many of those entering the workplace today are more interested in less traditional benefits of employment, like flexible hours, more vacation, or the ability to telecommute and work from home.

Company loyalty is also something of a dinosaur, the days when an employee would stay for ten or twenty years with a single employer are long gone. Today's employee will build career momentum by moving from position to position rarely staying at company for more than five years, meaning we need a more flexible more portable type of affordable health insurance.

So then, this new breed of entrepreneurs and consultants, and employees with a different set of values makes for a very different landscape. And perhaps with all the talk of health insurance reform in the country right now we should be looking at a very different health delivery model, one that is more in step with the modern economy.

This more than anything else is the driving force behind the move to a so-called consumer driven health insurance model. More and more companies online such as InsuranceBudget.com are making it easier for consumers to shop for and learn about private health insurance policies. Consumers now have more options than they have ever had before when it comes to affordable health insurance, and if your medical coverage doesn't look like your fathers, perhaps it is about time.