The Mercer Employer Healthcare Survey for the 2023 plan year found that 70% of employers will enhance benefits.  

With unemployment being only 3.6%, employers are prioritizing, attracting, and retaining employees OVER lowering healthcare costs.  

Here are the top 3 ways employers plan to enhance benefits:  

1) Make healthcare more affordable by offering a lower deductible or even no deductible/copay-only plan.  

2) Offer greater access to behavioral health services through enhanced EAPs or self-service technology.  

3) Expand virtual care beyond traditional telemedicine to include virtual behavioral health visits and virtual primary care.  

Lowering healthcare costs is LESS of a priority for employers when unemployment is low. 

Employee benefits priorities start at the top of any organization, be it a company, municipality, or school district.   

Being able to find and keep workers is often seen as an existential concern for organizations.  Not having enough people can create an immediate organizational crisis. 

With healthcare being so expensive, health insurance benefits with high out-of-pocket costs can be viewed as a detractor, rather than a benefit.  During the hiring process, a concise indicator of an organization’s health insurance benefit is its deductible. 

Give prospective employees a low deductible or no deductible and land those highly-valued candidates you need so badly. 

Sources:  

https://www.mercer.us/our-thinking/healthcare/2023-benefit-strategies-report.html  

https://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/employers-hone-affordability-and-access-2023-benefits  

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf  

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/UNRATE  

https://www.kff.org/health-costs/report/2021-employer-health-benefits-survey/