Health Insurance Benefits for Employees – Why It’s Important

With so many flashy, new wellness benefits on the rise in the industry, it can be easy to forget about the more common perks like employee medical insurance. Employer-provided health coverage has become the standard foundation benefit for many companies’ platforms.

Are you an employer looking to insure the safety and wellbeing of your employees? This Pacific Prime article will focus on employee benefits and the importance of employee medical insurance, and what you can tell new prospects who aren’t aware of why they need it.

Employee Health Insurance

Offering health insurance as an employee benefit is generally one of the simplest but most effective steps you can take to reward and attract talent. This can also deliver various benefits, such as increasing productivity, boosting morale, and helping shape a positive company culture.

There’s a wide range of options available to businesses looking to provide employee medical insurance but, generally, group health benefits will usually come in the form of:

• Basic health benefits: Outpatient and inpatient care, coverage for dependents, international/regional coverage, and inclusion of pre-existing conditions.
• Popular additional benefits: Maternity and fertility coverage, vision, and dental insurance.
• Extended/comprehensive benefits: Health checks and immunizations, general wellness, and mental health support.

The main point of a medical insurance plan for employees is to protect and support the health and wellbeing of staff so they can remain active and productive members of your company.

Other perks of employee health insurance, like financial support or education benefits, are helpful but employee medical insurance is often the most common addition to the salary offered worldwide.

Why is Employee Medical Insurance so Popular as an Employee Benefit?

The short answer is: healthcare is really expensive. Countries like the United States spend about USD 3.5 trillion each year on healthcare expenses – a rate that is 12,300% higher than what it was in 1960.

It’s the same around the world; even low-cost countries like Thailand have found keeping costs low whilst boosting quality a challenge. People around the world are increasingly looking for insurance to help give them peace of mind should they find themselves ill or injured.

As such, it’s no wonder that securing health insurance through an employer is so highly valued by employees. A Clutch survey indicated that 73% of employees received benefits of some kind from their employer, and 55% said health coverage was the most important in terms of job satisfaction.

Millennials were more likely to choose vacation time and overtime perks over health, but they’re currently the generation who are likely to need it the most.

Asking “Why is health insurance important as an employee benefit?” would have been a fair question one generation ago.

But, as the workforce has developed and people are no longer willing to accept a poor work-life balance, the majority of companies now understand that it’s not just “nice to have” a group health insurance plan for their staff – it’s necessary.

Providing Health Insurance to Employees

We completely understand that not every business is ready to offer employee benefits to their staff.

Even if you are, you might be considering other forms of benefits that might be more attractive than simply a group health insurance plan. To help you understand the benefits of why health insurance is important, here are our top five reasons for choosing medical perks:

1. It’s Simple

There are so many employee benefits providers that offer a range of health insurance solutions for companies of any size, in any industry.

The market is so large that there is also an abundance of intermediaries, like agents and brokers, that are available to help your company through every step of the process.

Some plans are simple and can be up and running in no time. For more complex platforms, expert advisors are never far away to lend a helping hand.

2. It Can Help Boost Productivity

According to a MetLife study, 60% of employers found that health benefits helped their staff become more productive. Healthy people can accomplish much more in their time at work and are less prone to burnout in the workplace.

Preventative medical solutions can amplify the benefits where staff are aware and engaged with such perks, and extending cover to dependents and families can also relieve external stress.

3. Getting Treatment and Care Can Become Easier

For many major insurers, payment options such as direct billing is the standard. Staff members needing treatment can find the whole process much easier to navigate when a healthcare provider and an insurance company have a good working relationship.

Those insurers with great service levels can also provide assistance with finding the right doctor or facility when employees need it too.

4. Your Company Can Increase its Attractiveness

Employee medical insurance has consistently been the most important benefit for a long time now. A Glassdoor study found that health insurance perks were above vacation and paid time off benefits, and pension plans.

If your company is in the market for new talent, it would be a good idea to consider what top-performing people want. If it’s healthcare benefits and you don’t provide it, you might just lose them to a competitor.

5. Healthcare Plans Can be Flexible as Your Company Grows

Say you have a small, local business now but you’ve got grand plans for overseas expansion. Some might think you should wait until you’re big enough to offer employee medical insurance, but the truth is that group health plans are generally one-year contracts (very, very few run longer).

If your company were to go through a radical transformational change in the next 12 months, it’s just a simple matter of reviewing your current benefits platform at renewal time and making the changes to match your needs. This video details 5 tips for designing the best employee benefit plan:

What do I Tell Employees Who Don’t Think Health Coverage is Important?

An easy way to highlight the importance of employee medical insurance is to tell people how much they might pay individually. For this, we have our Cost of International Health Insurance Report – 2023, available for download, which shows the average cost of plans from various countries.

Paying for medical costs out-of-pocket is usually out of the question for most employees, at least without taking a massive hit to any savings they might have.

Securing health insurance for your employees will be cheaper than if they purchased it themselves – plus, as a group, you’ll have more control and negotiating power to ensure that the money you spend on insurance is well spent.

For further reading, check out our article on family-friendly benefits. 

Frequently Asked Questions

What are some of the best employee benefits?

Some of the best employee benefits include retirement plans, paid leaves, and most importantly health insurance. By offering these benefits, you can contribute to improved talent retention and employee satisfaction.

What is the difference between an individual health insurance plan and a group health insurance plan?

An individual health insurance plan covers only the policyholder while a group health insurance plan covers an entire group of employees and all those employees will receive the same amount of coverage.

What is the difference between travel insurance and international health insurance?

Travel insurance covers the policyholder’s health and wellbeing along with trip cancellations for when they’re traveling abroad for a short amount of time while international health insurance covers the policyholder in the event they are living overseas for work or relocation purposes.

Arrange a meeting to discuss how Pacific Prime can support your employee benefits

At Pacific Prime, we’re committed to simplifying insurance. Our unique Broker Framework has been developed to empower and support our clients with their employee benefits platform, and to ensure that your company is always getting the best from its insurer and plan.

We offer the most extensive range of employee medical insurance solutions available globally, and can also assist with a range of non-health corporate benefits should you need it.

Meet with us to find out how you can take advantage of the Pacific Prime difference. Contact our expert team today, or visit our website for more information.

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Wish Sutthatothon

Content Writer at Pacific Prime

Wish Sutthatothon (Nickname: Guy) is currently a content writer at Pacific Prime Thailand, an insurance broker that connects individuals and businesses with insurance providers worldwide. He creates and edits blog articles, guides, reports, webpages, and other types of digital content.

He graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Communication Arts, Media & Communication major (concentration: Creative Content) from Mahidol University International College (MUIC). During the compulsory major elective period in the summer of 2021 and voluntarily during the summer of 2022, he also interned as a video and photo editor at Mbrella Films.

He has experience working as an English Content Writer at a real estate buying/renting/selling platform in Thonglor. There, he crafted company blog posts on a multitude of topics. Topics include market trends, legal issues and disputes in property businesses, financial guides, expat guides, home insurance, home decoration and maintenance, and weekly real estate news quick-recaps. Occasionally, as part of the blog-writing process, he would also translate existing Thai blogs to English.

In his free time, Guy enjoys doing scriptwriting and storytelling for comic strips, watching movies, and listening to music (particularly film scores).

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