I work for a group benefits consulting firm and here is my two cents:
Flex benefits - a well designed program can be beneficial for everyone; however, a firm with 30 or so employees is not going to get a flex plan on their own, there maybe some pools of companies out there, that offer something, but I am not active in that smaller market. You need at least 200 or so employees to make a flex plan work
Health spending account - can be a good deal for everyone. You can scale back your insured plan and use the savings to fund the HSA. Unused HSA funds are eventually returned back to the plan sponsor. Te HSA gives employees some flexibility to pay for things like braces, or glasses that will be in excess of the plan maximums.
Your group benefit plan is part of your overall compensation package, some companies offer scaled back benefit plans, but provide more direct comp, others are happy to be in the middle.
As for the poster above who is paying $400 per month for his share of the benefits and the company is paying the same. Is that just for group benefits? If so that is stunning, I'd love to have a look at your plan and the claims experience. to be paying almost $10,000 per year for group benefits is crazy.
A typical group benefit plan should be running at around 6.0% of payroll - it goes up to about 10% to 12% if you include pension, more if you include vacation.
If you wish you can PM me and perhaps my firm could help your company design a plan.
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