If you've ever walked into a daycare building, you smile when you hear happy kids and see their finger paint art on the walls. The reason you get to observe this is because of the teachers and staff that work their tails off. Tami knows this all too well and wants to make sure her staff is well taken care of as a result.
One thing Tami is struggling with is providing affordable health insurance to that Lubbock staff that does amazing work with those kids everyday. She doesn't want a cheap policy that they cannot use. She wants to provide a meaningful solution that allows them to have affordable healthcare expenses that doesn't break her daycare expense ledger.
When her broker sent the upcoming year's renewal, Tami nearly fell out of her chair because of the premiums. When she began to look at the in-network facilities and the copays, she realized this huge expense was also bad coverage for her valuable employees.
Tami felt defeated and frustrated. How could this be so bad?
She decided it was time to seek alternatives. That is when she reached out to us. She knew that Insurance For Texans works with small businesses like hers, and she hoped that we had options to help her solve this problem.
The Three Big Things To Know
- Level-Funded Plans Can Offer Big Savings
- High Deductible Health Plans And HSAs Can Keep Premiums Low
- Pairing Catastrophic Coverage With Direct Primary Is A Smart Strategy
If you prefer the down and dirty, the Frequently Asked Questions are at the end.
Level-Funded Plans Can Offer Big Savings
Tami had always assumed she had to go with one of the big insurance companies. You know the ones. They advertise on TV. They are expensive. Paperwork is complicated. Feels like you’re paying for a name and not much else. But that was all her old broker ever showed her.
When we told Tami about level-funded plans, her ears perked up. These group health insurance plans aren’t some magic fix, but they’re built for small groups like hers.
Tami pays a steady monthly cost to the plan administrator to cover eligible expenses for claims that are incurred by the plan members. This is done instead of paying traditional insurance premiums. And it sounded kind of scary to her.
Our agent went on to explain that if one of her employees has a major health event during the year, the stop-loss insurance would kick in and her monthly costs would not change.
Tami really liked the good news if her team stays healthy. She might get some of that money back if they stayed below the loss ratio after all expenses are covered.
Tami liked the sound of that. It felt like someone was finally playing fair. But saving on insurance premiums wasn’t just the whole answer. She wanted to make sure that she had flexibility in how her employees used the health coverage too.
High Deductible Health Plans and HSAs Can Keep Premiums Low
Some of Tami's team doesn’t go to the doctor much. Others have kids and need regular visits. She was worried she would never see that refund on a level-funded plans.
The next option she looked at were high deductible plans that could be paired with a Health Savings Account(HSA). These are big words and high deductibles can be frightening to some.
This combo can help in two ways. Lower monthly premiums for the daycare expenses, and a way for her employees to save for medical costs using pre-tax dollars similar to a flexible spending account.
Her employees were familiar with dependent care flexible spending accounts. They had used them to cover eligible expenses and lower their taxable income in the past. Their limitation has always been that the dollars evaporate at the end of the calendar year.
HSAs allow the savings potential to grow over time as the dollars belong to the employee until they are used. That means they can accumulate from one year to the next, and even grow inside an interest bearing account.
Tami decided she could pitch in a little each month to help them build their HSA accounts since she could save money on the premiums. It might not be a huge amount, but enough to show she cared. And the staff could give beyond that up to the contribution limit set by the government.
Tami liked this idea, but she wanted to know if there was something else. She had a few younger employees who barely used healthcare at all. Paying for regular coverage didn’t make sense for them. She wanted to know what other healthcare coverage options might exist.
Pairing Catastrophic Coverage With Direct Primary Care Is A Strategy
That’s when our Texas health insurance specialist brought up catastrophic health plans. At first, Tami thought they sounded too basic and she assumed they had huge deductibles.
While catastrophic health insurance companies don't want to be involved with your day to day care, they do want to make sure that you have a financial backstop for those major events that eventually come along in life.
That means the employees would pay cash for routine care life office visits or basic lab work. But if they are hospitalized or have a critical illness, the insurance kicks in and covers expenses. And the deductibles are much lower than Tami expected!
When we explained pairing this type of coverage with a direct primary care membership, things got interesting. Now her team could go see a doctor for everyday stuff like sore throats and checkups, and the catastrophic plan covered the big things like surgeries or hospital visits.
Low monthly premiums for the catastrophic plan. Real care when they need it from the DPC doctor. The memberships for her staff could be taken care of inexpensively. It sounds great!
This idea meant her budget wouldn't be wrecked. That’s what she’d been trying to figure out all along.
How Tami Made the Smart Choice With Local Help
Tami didn’t figure all this out on her own. She reached out to the folks at Insurance For Texans. They helped her compare the real options, not just the cookie-cutter plans from the big names.
It's all part of True Texas Education Insurance, which looks at her whole business and how to help. She was impressed with not only our options, but also our help in sorting them out.
Now she’s got a setup that works for her people and her daycare. And on top of that, they helped her with insurance for the building and the business itself. One team, full coverage, no nonsense.
If you’re a daycare owner in Texas and you’re tired of guessing, we can help you get it right.
Click the button below to talk with someone who actually understands what you’re dealing with and can help you build a plan that fits.
FAQs - Frequently Asked Questions