Insights

Americans will spend the vast majority of their adult lives at work, so it’s important that their working environments support a sustainable, balanced lifestyle. The pandemic era has only further emphasized the fact that employees are people with multidimensional lives, with work being only one part of the larger whole.

How are health insurance premiums calculated? When the cost of healthcare goes up, insurance premiums tend to follow suit. Let’s take a closer look at the relationship between these two elements of the healthcare system.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, hospital systems were struggling to increase revenue on razor-thin margins. With the added pressure of a global health crisis, healthcare leaders have been pressed to reduce economic vulnerabilities where possible.

It’s no secret that America’s educators are overworked and underpaid. Even before the coronavirus pandemic upended the education system, teachers were starting to reach a breaking point, evidenced by widespread teacher strikes and protests in 2018 and 2019.

Employer-sponsored health insurance remains the main source of health insurance in the United States, covering about 153 million working Americans and their families. In fact, it’s often the reason for taking one job over another: 46% of Americans surveyed said they chose their current jobs because of the health insurance offered.

Many employers offer Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) as a component of their health plans. Some will even offer to contribute, or match employee contributions, as an extra incentive to take advantage of this benefit. Theoretically, contributing to an HSA should help employees cover out-of-pocket medical expenses, including their deductibles.