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Small Firms Underestimate the Value of a Retirement Plan
Small businesses seriously underestimate their employees’ interest in having an employee-funded retirement plan, according to a recent study.
The 2004 Transamerica Small Business Retirement Survey found that 92% of small business employees view an employee-funded retirement plan—such as a 401(k) plan, SEP, or SIMPLE IRA—as an important benefit. Futhermore, 54% of this group said they would choose a job that met only their minimum salary requirement but provided excellent retirement benefits, over a job with an excellent salary but lesser retirement benefits (40% would choose the higher salary). And, of small business employees without an employee-funded retirement plan, 52% said they were at least somewhat likely to consider leaving a current job in order to take a similar job in a company with a retirement plan (up from 42% in 2003).
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Employee Education, Communications Are Essential for CDHPs to Live Up to Their Potential
When one thinks of the way that employees have paid for and received health care coverage over the years, it’s reasonable to expect that the learning curve for consumer-directed health plans (CDHPs) will be steep. Most employees are used to paying a premium for insurance plan coverage, a copayment amount when seeking care, and a plan deductible and/or coinsurance. Unfortunately, this approach frequently does not result in employees seeing the bill for the actual cost of the health care services they received. It also has not motivated employees to shop around before choosing health care providers or before making other health care spending decisions. With traditional health plan designs, the only comparison shopping most members might do would be to locate an in-network, or preferred, provider, in order to maximize plan benefits.
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Do Your Employees Really Understand the Value of Disability Insurance?
Survey results show that most employees do not understand the value of protecting their income and livelihood in the event of a disability.
Past statistics have shown that one-third of workers over age 30 will become disabled for at least three months during their working years.1 Despite these figures, most working Americans miscalculate the enormity of this risk, according to a survey of 800 working adults by America's Health Insurance Plans. Almost half of employees (47%) say they're not concerned that a disability will put them out of work for three months or more, while 25% are somewhat concerned and only 27% are very concerned. "It won't happen to me," or "The statistics don't really affect me," are common arguments we've all heard before.
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Despite Cost Issues, Many Employees Content with Health Insurance Status Quo
Three quarters of adults believe that their employers are doing the best they can to make health insurance affordable, and a majority want to continue to have their employers pay some cost of the coverage, rather than receiving money to find and pay for coverage on their own.
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