More Health Plan Choices At Work. What’s The Catch?

Until recently, John Henry Foster, an equipment distribution firm based in Eagan, Minn., offered its employees only a couple of health plans to choose from. That’s common in companies across America.

“They just presented what we got,” says Steve Heller, a forklift operator who has worked at John Henry Foster for 15 years.

But these days the company’s employees have dozens of choices. And something else is new: Each worker now receives money from the company (from $350 to $1,000 a month, depending on whether Heller and his co-workers are buying insurance for a single person, a couple or a family) to buy a health plan.

Employees are then directed to an online exchange — a private, secure website that offers the selection of plans for side-by-side comparison. Workers can choose high-deductible plans with relatively low monthly premiums or they can pay more each month to have more of their care and medications covered.

Just as before, the company determines the insurance companies listed, and the scope of the treatments and procedures covered by each plan.

Three years after the switch, Heller says he’s happy with his insurance and the exchange. The company’s managers are happy with it, too.