2013
The Associated Press/Washington Post: Aon Hewitt Predicts That More Employers Will Offer High-Deductible Health Insurance. More workers at big U.S. companies will likely start paying a greater share of their doctor’s bill because of a health insurance shift forecast by benefits consultant Aon Hewitt. Consumer-directed health plans, or CDHPs, could become the most common form of coverage offered by companies with 500 or more workers in the next three to five years, Aon Hewitt said Wednesday, as companies continue trying to cut health-care costs 10/9.
Imagine that, a prediction from the people who have been pushing the idea for the last ten years or so, the same brain trust now pushing employers into private health insurance exchanges. I’m not just talking about AonHewitt, but all consulting firms who stir the pot to please cost cutting CFOs and to generate more business for themselves.
This is all analogous to college professors who shut themselves in basement offices and write books sending companies in a new direction every five years with some new theory of management (MBO, Quality circles, and who knows what else) while generating consulting jobs in the process.
When it comes to health benefits, when companies win, employees pay more. So if you are the beneficiary of a CDHP or more choice in a private exchange (with a fixed employer contribution), you can probably thank the employee benefit and HR consulting firms of the world…. just doing their job.
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 