The Pros and Cons of Offering Healthcare Needs to Employees

Categories: Employment Health Care Pros and cons

Essay, Pages 5 (1229 words)

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Religious freedom is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private to manifest a religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship or observance and the ability to order one's own choices in accordance with the truth. Most often than not, health care benefits are optional for most employers but of critical importance to most employees, but I feel that employers should be aware and mindful of the pros and cons (advantages and disadvantages) of offering healthcare needs to their employees.

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Healthcare benefits are a critical piece of an employee's compensation package. Also, healthcare for Women's Reproductive Needs, along with time-off benefits (maternity leave) are one of the most popular of benefits to employees. If an employer makes the decision to offer healthcare benefits to employees, the employer should be aware that he or she calls into play a whole series of laws that will tell him or her what coverage he or she has to offer and how he or she has to offer it.

Often, people tend to focus on the employee, looking at the advantages or personal benefits that the employee derives from the health benefits without looking at the other side of the picture, thus, the disadvantages the employers experience or come across.

In this paper, I am going to outline and elaborate on the reasons why religious freedom should exempt employers from providing healthcare for employees, and the disadvantages the employers encounter. First and foremost, is the cost of healthcare.

Health care cost has risen tremendously in recent years. This has been a major concern for most businesses and employers over the years. Because of this, not only are the cost draining valuable resources from many employers, it also incurs losses to small businesses. Moreover, no matter what size the company is, offering healthcare benefits to employees is going to cost thousands of dollars. Also, small businesses are charged more money because they do not have as many employees as large companies do, and large companies find benefits expensive, because the more employees that a business has, the more money they are paying for their health benefits or paying an insurance company to manage each employee's account.

“Rising healthcare cost remains a serious concern of U.S. employers, especially in light of the slow-growing economy, the very low growth in wages and fears about forces that threaten to drive up costs even higher," Helen Darling, the group's president and chief executive, said at the press conference.” (Halzack). This implies that the continually increasing cost in healthcare is going to create financial losses for both large and small businesses and is also going to force business executives of various companies to think of subsequent measures to take in controlling health care costs for their employees so that they do not run at huge losses. Since businesses aim at profit making, the high cost of healthcare that causes financial losses to businesses can eventually lead to the collapse of the company or business. Because employers want to avoid making losses, this sometimes brings about cost-sharing between the employers and employees in businesses.

This is the way employers in businesses control cost by finding ways and means of pushing some of the cost on their employees. The factor of high cost is a great disadvantage to employers that many people do not realize because most people they focus on the benefits of the employee more than the losses that the employers and business run at. Some critics may argue that providing healthcare benefit to employees makes the workers happy and helps in keeping and retaining workers in their respective jobs or companies. But offering healthcare benefits to employees does not necessarily make every employee happy and this should not be seen as a guarantee to let workers stay.

Also, if an employer decides to provide healthcare needs for its employees, some employees may not be happy or satisfied with the healthcare package the employer or company is offering and also the amount of money they have to pay for themselves. Again, healthcare benefits may not be necessarily the solution to keeping workers at their jobs because the workers may be facing different problems at work or unfavorable working conditions that frustrates them and would want them to quit the job. For example, an employee may be facing racial discrimination treatments from his or her fellow work colleagues and staff. This creates a bad inter-personal relationship between the worker and his or her colleagues. This may want the employee to quit the job even if the employers or company provides him or her with health benefits. Another instance is, if employers are not satisfied with extra bonuses or low-increment of salaries, this may frustrate them enough to quit their jobs even if the employer provides them with healthcare benefits. According to staffing agency Kelly Services' annual survey covering 120,000 respondents globally, a staggering 48 percent of employees are unhappy in their current jobs, up from 47 percent the previous year.

A combination of factors is dampening sentiment, including headcount reductions, smaller bonuses and few benefits as companies cut back on spending (Harjani). Apart from unfavorable work conditions that employees face, some employees also experience lack of job security (job insecurity), with workers thinking and worrying about what they ought to do to keep or retain their job. All these reasons support the fact that providing healthcare benefit to employees is not a guarantee for keeping works at their job, as some critics argue. Another disadvantage that employers encounter and another reason why employers should not provide healthcare for employees is the administrative hassles involved in offering healthcare packages for employees.

The administrative hassles refers to the problems brought about by pressures of time, money and inconvenience. Even though the insurance companies from whom the employers or company purchases the health insurance will normally act as plan administrators, the employers or company will have to choose the particular insurer and then spend part of their time filling out forms, remitting premiums and acting as intermediaries between employee and insurer, among many other tasks, which should not be so. I strongly believe that the employers do not deserve to go through all the stress involved, simply because they are the bosses. Aside that, offering healthcare benefits to employees creates room concerning legal compliance, which in turn causes a company to incur legal fees. I feel this is a big risk that employers take because the reputation of the employer or company is at stake.

For example, if there is a miscommunication between an employer and an employee concerning a healthcare plan of the employee, the employer can be sued by the employee and this is going to incur losses to the company. The employee is also going to make some money out of the law suit as well. I feel that in a way, the employee is taking advantage of his or her employer or the company, which I do not support. Mistakes made in healthcare benefit plans can also head to expensive lawsuits or even fines which at the long run affects the company financially. For instance, because the administrative procedure entails much, employers who act as middle-men foe their employees may unintentionally make some mistakes in the process of filling out forms and so on.