A recent nationwide survey of Insurers and Blue Cross agencies released by a major international consultant, concluded that health care costs increases for 2008 versus 2007 will range between 13% to 14%. Dental care (based on increased utilization and provincially set fee guides) should rise between 7% - 11% this year. These trends remain high [...]
It’s time to come clean…The concept of “insurance” as relates to health and dental benefits for employers with more than 20 insured members is largely a ‘sham’. As we have written before, insurance is purchased to cover unpredictable, costly and usually catastrophic events. Most consumers would not purchase insurance every time they buy an item [...]
This reimbursement option can be exercised for both health or dental expenses which exceed the coverage limits outlined in the current group insurance contract, or are not covered in the plan at all. These expenses however must be covered under the Canadian Income Tax Act. Expenses that are not insurable by law, cannot be reimbursed [...]
If you are looking for a way to manage plan costs and provide flexibility, consider a health spending account.For many employers and their employees a flexible health spending account (HSA) is their first introduction to flex. In its simplest form, an HSA (also known as a flexible health expense account) is an individual employee account that reimburses employees for certain medical [...]
Over the year’s, the Canadian employee benefits marketplace has found innovative ways to manage employee benefit programs. None-the-less, benefit costs still appear to be spiraling out of control. At last check, healthcare costs rose by an annual rate of 15% per year and dental costs rose by an average rate of 8%. At these [...]
