We've been talking about health care reform here for years. In fact, I'm not sure I even remember a time when we didn't.
I'm kidding. I just remember when we discussed it in more academic, theoretical terms – long before this site was around – as in, "Wouldn't it be great if we could do X, Y or Z? And that's opposed to, "How in the hell are we going to deal, with A, B and C? By next month?
And we've talked at length about the mandates and what they mean for small businesses, benefits managers and the brokers they work with. But for the most part, we've overlooked the employees themselves. And these are the ones who will find themselves equally compelled under the law to be covered – whether through you, the employer, or on their own – possibly in their own state health exchanges.
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But employers can rely on some inherent advantages over the average employee. Their resources are probably stretched a lot thinner than yours and with a lot less flexibility. Employers rarely have to choose between a car payment, groceries or individual health policy premium. And if you did, you still have a lot more bargaining room than your workers usually do.
Just as critically, employers typically have a wealth of experience at their fingertips that, again, employees often lack. So why not share some of those with your employees, whether you offer them health insurance or not?
Some accuse HR of a profession void of innovation. Well, at least this person did over at BusinessWeek, but I'd argue this critique rings a little overly harsh.
If anything, I'd say HR has come a long way already and that the only reason innovations such as consumer-driven health care and wellness programs are enjoying any kind of success is because of driven benefits managers. At the end of the day, all it takes is a simple switch from taking a reactive approach to your employees to a more proactive one.
We all face dramatic changes next January, wouldn't we be better served facing them together?
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