Group Health Insurance- I was lost but now am found

For the past few years we have started to tell our small groups to stop offering health insurance to their employees, especially when you have employees that would be better off getting their insurance through the exchange and getting better rates than what the employer can give them. This worked great here in Nevada! Now comes 2017....
Health insurance companies are finally getting data back about the individual marketplace and it isn't pretty. I like to think of health insurance risk pools as swimming pools. When someone is a heavy user of benefits they dirty that pool. The individual marketplace is the filthiest pool you can get into. Who wants to swim in the dirtiest pool? That's why so many carriers have exited the marketplace and the carriers have told brokers they won't pay them a dime or at least significantly less if they enroll someone on one of those plans. They also raised the rates on those plans to show individuals how bad it really is.
If you still qualify for a subsidy, you are still probably better off through the exchange for cost, because the government is still footing their portion of the bill. The problem you will have is access to doctors. In Nevada we have Anthem pulling their PPO and Prominence pulling their WellHealth network. So fewer doctors to choose from, but the subsidies can help as the plans un-subsidized are seeing some healthy increase.
If you don't qualify for a subsidy, have at least 1 w2 employee other than yourself, or just want want some great options, please consider looking at group health insurance again. You get more options with national networks and the rates are quite a bit lower than the individual plans. Shock! As this wasn't the case the past couple years. Employers can also set up benefits to be deducted pre-tax saving even more money and also have the baility to wow their new employees by offering a great benefits package. Win win win.

Is your financial advisor really an advisor or insurance salesman?

Have you ever tried investing on your own? What do you think about when you invest?
I know I think about buying stocks. A little piece of a company. I remember in high school picking a few companies to follow on Yahoo finance and see how well our picks did at the end of a certain period. If we made money we were happy. The trick was picking the right stocks. In the real world you have to actually have money to buy these stocks. When you put in that order there are all sorts of fees to pay as well in order to get it transferred to your name. This can be overwhelming. If you are dealing with your own precious money as well you don't want to pick the wrong stock. So you hire a "professional."
I think everyone and their mom is a financial professional. I see more job openings on Linkedin and job boards for financial services than any other industry. On the show Last Week Tonight they made fun of the fact that everyone can claim to be a financial advisor as there is no actual law or licensing to be considered as such. If you find yourself in front of a person who considers them an advisor there is no real way of figuring out  what credentials they hold and what they are really trying to get you to buy. I like the funny video that the CFP Board puts out to show this.
When you pull back the wool though you find they are all just some kind of insurance salesman. No one likes losing money, but they all love making it. So the way advisors make money is by selling you an insurance policy to ensure you never lose, or if you do, it should hopefully be by very little. Who doesn't like that? That is why annuity sales (insurance for investments) are incredibly high. $440 million in 2012 according to LIMRA http://www.limra.com/uploadedFiles/limracom/Posts/PR/Data_Bank/_PDF/AnnuityCompanyRankings-Q4-2012.pdf
Insurance isn't a bad thing, just has a high cost. Remember the way insurance works is you pay for everyone to share in the potential losses so instead of you getting really large gains and possibly really large losses you are paying someone out of your large gains to insure you won't get large losses. You are going to miss out on all of the fun and pay an insurance salesman some great commissions.  Why else do companies recruit agents so much? They give great returns! They also bank on the fact that agent won't last long anyway and any business he/she writes is all commissions they never have to pay out.
So long story short, your financial advisor is really just an insurance salesman. Just make sure you pick one that understands what they are doing and discloses to you the compensation in recommending a product. It doesn't make them evil. Sometimes they can be ignorant and sometimes they can be self promoting (greedy) but just make sure you keep a guard and take control of what you want.

Thanks for the idea Manoush

Are employers re thinking how and why they have employees? I meet regularly with employers who contemplate offering health insurance to their employees. I wonder sometimes about how a lot of them view those employees. Some pay their workers minimum wages and the thought of having to pay an extra $150-$350 a month in insurance scares them while others see it as a cost of doing business. So what is the true value of employees? Are they a cost? A burden? or an asset?
When you run a business, customers and clients are always in need. You can't just shut your doors one day and expect them to be happy with you. I know I absolutely hate it when the product or service I need is out of my reach because someone is no there. The problem is we are human and we can't always be there. We have more to life than being the robot producer. We have families, emotions, needs to refuel and to rest.
So how do we look at employees a an asset that can be something more than just an able body to complete a task and allow them to still be human? How can we have confidence they will be there and allow them the opportunity to expand their reach and leadership when they have a life to live?
I was listening to the podcast Note to Self and this week they concluded their 4 part series on following working mothers trying to make a difference in the lives of working mothers.
http://www.wnyc.org/story/work-life-balance-need-done-partnership/
They mentioned something that made me think. How can a company provide flexibility to employees to take the needed time to be flexible and still meet its own demands? Are there things a company can do to develop safety nets for its employees so they can have the flexibility to be human? Gender roles are on their way out with regards to work and the constraints of having a family are ever increasing, especially with over 50% of our population single and single parents having to raise the next generation.
Some of my suggestions are below.
First, set up a bank of time for personal time off. Allow employees to take a moment to breathe without worry of losing pay. You still have to keep your lights on and still need people there to help out clients, so a systemized program that allows flexibility is key.
Second, invest in short term disability for your employees. It's not that expensive of insurance and it saves you money on taxes. If your employees get sick, hurt, or even have a baby (for girls only), then they will still receive a paycheck for a few weeks to a few months if need be without costing you any additional money above what you pay in premiums.
Third, have a backup plan and spread out roles in the company when someone is gone. Most companies can probably run on a lot fewer employees than what they have, but the more you have the easier the work can be. When someone is out for an extended time it shouldn't be a burden to the company that causes panic. Understand that even though we can do just as much with less doesn't mean you don't need the help. Think of moving big heavy boxes. If you are strong enough, you can probably move boxes all on your own. You might be able to do it for a short period of time, but eventually it wears on you and you get tired. If someone comes and lends a hand, it gets much easier and you start to accomplish a lot more.
Fourth, don't stress about the small costs. If you struggle to pay people what they are worth, then maybe you are not helping anyone out and hurting both your business and that employee. Change your mindset and hopefully increase your value to your clients so you can truly give people their worth.

renewal season

The next few weeks we will be getting the long anticipated 4th quarter small group rates. Great news for most employers is there are decreases this year in rates!
It amazes me that insurance carriers are so willing to decrease small group rates yet drastically increase individual health rates. The small group rates were designed to be no different than individual plans, except the employers owned the policies and could add/remove employees according to hire dates and terminations.
This is just a good sign that those who purchase individual health insurance are typically the sickest part of our population.
Makes me wonder what this data will do and how the government and health insurers will react. Or will everyone just ignore it?

Year of the small group in Nevada

Why would a small group want to offer health insurance to its employees anyways? There is no mandate to offer coverage and employees can go to the marketplace and get subsidies.
Well, not every employee can get subsidies, especially if you pay them a decent wage. A lot of small businesses have owners who are already paying the full price of their insurance and many of their employees are doing the same. The problem is the business cannot write off any individual insurance policy premiums and they are subject to employees getting their own benefits that are tied to the individual enrollment periods.
The other important news is that individual health insurance rates are going to be seeing as much as 30% rate increases! Those employers who currently have a Gold or Platinum plan on their own are going to be getting a big shocker when they see their renewal in a few months and wonder what happened to their awesome Cadillac plan.
Good news is small group plans are not changing. rates are actually going down and the Gold and Platinum plans are widely available. To top it off groups get even more choices when it comes to plan choice.
If you have a small business with at least 2 employees, it might be a good time to start looking at group health benefits again. If not for your employees, but for yourself.

Reality Vs Perception

Have you ever though to yourself, "That person has it all, money, power, sex" or anything like that? You wonder how they got to be so successful. Some these people tell you how you too can be successful just like them. Notice though how they are also charging you money to learn how to be successful just like them? That's because they are really no different than you are.
We are all human and we tend to make similar choices. The difference each of us has is opportunities. None of us are bon with the same parents or situations and we each have different friends and crowds we hang out with. This in turn generates different opportunities throughout our lifetime. Even the successful had to start out somewhere. They weren't an instant success. You will also be amazed to find out that the reason they are charging you money is because in order to perpetuate their success they need your money to stay successful in order to preach to people how to become successful.
I have found that people who make modest lives and in their own right are successful are more than happy to share with others at no cost. They give freely of their time and resources. This doesn't always mean they give everything away, but they are willing to enrich not only their lives, but others' lives as well.
Maybe I am just a dreamer, but I think a world where we give more are we the most successful and happy. The more we give the more we also receive form others.

Love Healthcare reform

When you are purchasing health insurance, you are paying for everyone else's medical expenses. I get asked constantly why insurance is so expensive. Worst of all, why did it go up after 2014? That's because we are paying for more services than ever before, such as pediatric dental, preventative services, and many more. Don't be afraid of a high deductible plan. You can save money and be less likely to see big rate increases.