A Better Way to Provide Dealer Benefits – Our National Private Health Exchange

January 1, 2012

U-Haul Dealerships are under the same pressures as small employers all over the nation, especially when it comes to getting health insurance and providing employees with benefits. Small employers are increasingly canceling group health benefits for 2012.

But through the U-Haul Dealer Benefits Program, Dealers can use our national private health insurance exchange to offer coverage through a cafeteria program where everyone gets to make their own choice among competing best-value plans approved by the insurance authorities in each state.

The exchange is the U-Haul Dealer Benefits Program online Comparison Shopping Tool administered by Dealer Benefits Network, LLC and powered by eHealth, Inc. technology that removes traditional barriers to employee benefits by applying the U-Haul do it yourself philosophy.

Approximately 50% of U.S. small businesses with less than 50 employees no longer provide traditional group health insurance to their employees, according to U.S. Department of Labor statistics. This figure is expected to greatly increase in 2012 due to:

Employer Contribution Requirements …Health insurers require a minimum percentage of the premium for each employee that must be paid by the employer, normally 100% of the employee-only cost, or the entire plan is cancelled. This traditional approach turns the employer contribution into a Defined Benefit promise, unlinked from the cost of coverage;
Employee Participation Requirements …Insurance companies require a minimum percentage of employees join the group plan, usually 75% of all those eligible, or the entire plan is cancelled; and
Cost per Participant …In 2012, group health insurance plans are facing some of the biggest percentage premium rate increases in the history of U.S. health benefits, due to increasing costs being passed along by health care providers and new coverage requirements imposed by ACA (Federal Health Care Reform). It is no longer true that the best rate to be had is through a group plan.

The U-Haul Dealer Benefits Program health exchange directly addresses each of these issues through its online technology platform and defined contribution approach.

By offering the U-Haul Dealer Benefits Program, Dealers will find there is:

No Employer Contribution Requirement …The Dealer sets a fixed dollar amount that it wishes to contribute to each class of employee, or even employee-pay-all, rather than the high minimums required by insurers under traditional plans.
No Employee Participation Requirement … The Dealer sets its own eligibility and participation requirements. Under the U-Haul Dealer Benefits Program, the Dealer and the employees of all the Dealers business and their families became eligible immediately upon becoming a Dealership, with no waiting period. New employees also become eligible immediately and there is no requirement that any employees participate.
Lower Cost Per Participant … Individual health policies typically cost less than half the cost of equivalent traditional group coverage for healthy employees, and new options, such as state-sponsored pools, are now available for individuals who do not qualify due to pre-existing medical conditions.

What makes the U-Haul Dealer Benefits Program unique is that once a Dealer decides to offer the program, employees simply go online and enroll for a major medical and/or dental insurance plan that fits their family needs. The Dealers role is limited to making the program available and directing employees questions to the benefits department at 888-551-9801. Even the traditional headaches of payroll deduction are eliminated under the program default payment method where each person pays for their own coverage choices.

One of the more exciting features of the U-Haul Dealer Benefits Program is its wide range of benefit choices, including major medical insurance, dental insurance, accident insurance, long term care insurance, life insurance, vision and hearing benefits and discount mail order prescriptions. Plus, all insurance and benefit choices made by the Dealer and employees are portable, so they can be continued even if the Dealership or employment ends.

There are tremendous financial incentives for small employers to switch to a self-enrollment, defined contribution platform, and U-Haul Dealer Benefits is at the forefront of providing this solution.

U-Haul Dealer Benefits Program is a national leader helping solve one of our nations major problems … getting employees better health benefits at lower cost while easing the administrative burden on the Dealer. We accomplish this by providing employees our online Comparison Shopping Tool that allows them to make their own health insurance and benefit spending decisions. Read more about the program elsewhere on this proprietary website for Dealers and employees.