The healthcare bill’s passage through the House this past weekend progresses the country towards coverage of the uninsured. While it defines credits and penalties for businesses as it relates to providing healthcare benefits, it falls short on solutions for cost containment in the near and long-term.
I was interested to read an article and subsequent blog post in the Wall Street Journal that discussed the scaling of insurance premiums based on age and the general premise that older individuals are more costly to the healthcare system than their younger counterparts.
For businesses, this is an important discussion. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average age of retirement is 62 and the national workplace average for the 65-to-74 age group was 23.2 percent in 2006, up nearly four percentage points from 19.6 percent in 2000.
As the workforce continues to become more and more stratified in age, businesses need to be more aware of how that dynamic impacts their specific health insurance costs. Opportunities abound to work with employee population to proactively improve wellness and understand how it directly impacts the cost of their healthcare and their employer’s ability to provide affordable options.
- Keith Lemer
