How to Help Employees Navigate Obamacare

individual health insurance stethoscope

AMY ENGEBRETSON
HNI Account Executive

No matter what your opinion on health care reform, we can all agree on one thing: it’s confusing.

The 2,000+ page bill itself is a mess to sort through, but add benefits jargon, political posturing, and mixed messages from every direction — and you’ve probably got a group of very confused employees. Understanding health care reform is no small task.

Are you supporting your employees and giving them the information they need to make smart health care choices? Or are you letting them fend for themselves?

Whether you offer a company health plan or not, making sure employees are informed is vitally important — for employee morale, for their ultimate health, and for recruitment and retention.

Who Needs Help the Most

For employees that are benefit eligible at mid- to large-sized employers, not a lot will change come 2014 when the exchanges are implemented. They are probably not eligible for federal subsidies, so purchasing on the public exchanges isn’t likely to be a cost competitive option for them.

The employees that AREN’T covered under an employer-sponsored plan are the ones that will have to sort through a bureaucratic mess to get coverage January 1. Workers that frequently are without coverage include:

Employees of small companies
Part-time Employees
Independent Contractors
Seasonal Workers
Retirees
Family members and dependents that aren’t covered

How to Help Employees That Aren’t Covered

Starting in 2014, all individuals are required to obtain health insurance or pay a penalty. If there are individuals at your company that aren’t covered by your group plan (or if you don’t offer coverage at all), we have a resource to help them find a plan that fits.

We’ve partnered with a leader in individual health insurance called GoHealth that can help these individuals find coverage. It’s completely free to employers, and it helps employees shop for insurance options available in the private market or on the government sponsored exchanges. GoHealth will:

Calculate potential subsidies the employee might be eligible for
Provide both private and public market individual plans to choose from
Offer advice to individuals comparing plans
Answer any questions by phone or instant message chat

Your employees can access GoHealth from this page: hni.com/gohealth or by calling our dedicated line at 855-506-1264 to speak to a support staff of registered insurance advisors. We believe this will be a great resource for individual employees as well as HR professionals that will likely be charged with fielding questions about navigating health care reform and the public exchanges.

To help get the message out to those who need it, we’ve compiled some communication materials for you to use to share this with your employees. Click the button below to download a 1-page information sheet and a poster to share with employees.