In the past, people who were self-employed, who worked for small companies that did not offer group plans, or people who had exhausted their COBRA benefits were the only ones that chose individual health insurance plans.
However, health care reform may change people’s perception of the usefulness of the individual plan.
Anthony Benevento, vice president of sales and marketing for UPMC Health Plan, says that the upcoming changes may signal a renewed interest in individual health insurance plans.
“Any health reform plan that includes some sort of a mandate for persons to have insurance will bring with it more of a demand for individual plans or individual family plans,” Benevento says.
Smart Business spoke to Benevento about how individual plans are changing the health insurance field and what business owners need to know about them.
What role will individual plans play in the health insurance landscape in the years ahead?
Individual plans have been around for a long time. But, with all the changes that are expected to come with health care reform, there will likely be an increased need for individual plans. Any health reform plan that includes some sort of a mandate for persons to have insurance will bring with it more of a demand for individual plans or individual family plans.
Persons who work for small companies that cannot afford to offer health insurance or choose not to offer group insurance, or persons who are self-employed as well as those persons who are unemployed will need to examine their options in terms of individual health plans. As a result, the individual product could prove to be especially important in this era.
As individual plans become more well-known, will more employers look at dropping health care and letting their employees get health insurance on their own?
That answer will, of course, vary from employer to employer. However, the concept of having employees purchase individual plans has been available to employers for a long time and it has not drawn much interest.
The biggest reason large numbers of employers have dropped their health care plans is that employers continue to see the health benefits that they offer employees as one of the most important tools they have in terms of recruiting and retaining top employees. That is not likely to change.
