As an employer, learn how to support your employee health insurance by providing access to affordable healthcare options.

Prioritize the well-being of your employees by implementing proactive measures to address their healthcare affordability challenges, ultimately leading to a healthier and more productive workforce.

Yes, employer-subsidized health insurance helps workers protect themselves against the risk of  financial catastrophes due to catastrophic medical events. But with today’s high deductibles and other cost barriers to access to medical care, employees are having a hard time paying even for basic, routine medical care.

Consider: The average deductible for a workplace insurance plan as of 2022 is $1,763 for single coverage.

But according to a new survey from Bankrate.com, more than half of Americans can’t cover a $1,000 emergency.

Clearly, there’s a disconnect.

Millions of American workers simply can’t afford to regularly see a doctor, or pick up their prescriptions for newer and more expensive drugs.

A recent study found that 43% percent of working-age adults were inadequately insured in 2023.

Of these, about 9% were completely uninsured, 11% had a gap in insurance coverage over the past year. And some 23% actually had health insurance in place – but still couldn’t afford to get the health care they needed.

When employees aren’t getting the health care they need, the problem may manifest itself first as presenteeism: Workers are less productive when they are stressed at work, when they are trying to juggle their daily cost of living against the cost of getting their children to a pediatrician or family medicine doctor.

They may also be less productive due to symptoms of high blood pressure, heart disease, anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder,  or many other chronic diseases that should be manageable with a little preventive and maintenance care.

Patients that skip medical appointments because of cost are also very likely to skip needed medications, vaccinations, and important health screening.

These early stages of lost productivity are extremely difficult to spot. But they are very real: A 2018 study estimated that healthcare-related presenteeism cost employers some $3,055 per year per person.

The reason: high deductibles, co-pays, and other out-of-pocket costs for health care are overwhelming their available savings. A health insurance plan with an $8,000 deductible doesn’t help most people who don’t have $8,000 lying around.

According to a recent survey by the Commonwealth Fund, nearly half of employees surveyed – 46% – reported they had delayed or skipped getting medical treatment due to costs. 42% said they were currently paying off medical debt or had trouble affording health care costs.

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