This past Sunday afternoon, I was watching The Northern Trust Golf Tournament, which by the way was a fantastic finish and playoff between Dustin Johnson and Jordan Spieth, I noticed a relatively new automobile being advertised – a Hyundai Genesis. I don’t typically pay attention but this looks like a cool luxury automobile and very sporty. It’s got handcrafted interior materials, turbocharged engine, beautiful alloy wheels, gulf wing doors, it’s a very sleek body design. I don’t own one but I sure would like to check it out and drive it.
One of the things that caught my eye while watching these commercials was its tagline “follow your instincts not the footprint.” What I believe is that they are trying to engage the television audience to look for something new, look for something innovative. Find and follow something better than what else is out on the market. Don’t consider another vehicle like you may have already – a Chevrolet, Ford, or Chrysler, for example – but rather follow your instincts and check out something new and innovative that will make your driving more pleasurable.
I continue to follow this same tagline as it relates to health care and its cost for an employer. Simply following the footprint of what you’ve always purchased and done before by either changing insurance companies, or cost shifting employees isn’t making the experience more pleasurable. Costs continue to rise at unprecedented rates and, and will soon make healthcare completely unaffordable, and certainly unsustainable for employers to provide to their employees. I’ve seen increases delivered recently to employers that range from 5% to 23%.
Wouldn’t you rather lower your healthcare costs and provide your employees with a greater increase in wages or salaries? Wouldn’t you rather provide them with incomes that will allow them to afford a better standard of living, afford college expenses, affordable housing, etc.? For decades employees have typically received 0 to 3% increases in wages year after year. Part of this is due to the fact that more and more of a company’s earnings are used to pay for the ever increasing cost of health insurance. Employers cannot afford to do both – they cannot afford the dramatic increases in healthcare expenses and provide higher wages year after year. Businesses strapped to afford these expenses as well as attract and retain valuable employees.
The only way that employers are going to be able to afford what has now generally become their highest expense in their business next to wages – insurance – is to follow their instincts to alternatives, and examine what those alternatives can do to their bottom line. Employers cannot simply sit back and accept the status quo – they must challenge it. What have you been exposed to that can provide you, your company, and your employees to an alternative to make the ride more pleasurable? If you would like some answers, please feel free to reach out to me at [email protected]. In the meantime, I’m going to test drive a Genesis and see if it’s right for me.