Are Health Insurance Costs Too Expensive for Small Businesses?

Employer health insurance costs have jumped more than 8% in 2024 compared to last year – the highest increase in the past ten years. A family plan costs an employer $26,000/year! 

With such a high cost second only to payroll, small businesses increasingly feel that traditional health plans are cost prohibitive. Their ability to pay competitive wages to recruit and retain talent is also impacted.

In a new study by eHealth, 47% of small employers said that a 15% increase in insurance premiums would make offering coverage for their employees unaffordable for them. Many can hardly afford group health benefits already, when they’re paying upwards of $300 per employee per month.

Why Group Health Insurance Is important

Most employers agree that offering health insurance benefits is an important part of attracting and retaining quality employees. 

But small employers in particular are finding it more challenging to retain good workers today than three years ago. This is unfortunate because being able to offer competitive health insurance benefits can increase their chances of finding the best people for their company.

More than that, whole communities suffer when hard-working people can’t provide quality healthcare to their families. Businesses may shutter or not grow, further putting community viability at risk.

We’ve seen business owners struggle as they can’t scale operations or pay competitively because of cost prohibitive healthcare costs. Larger competitors swoop in and poach excellent employees at a great loss to small businesses.

Employees are the blood that gives your small business life. You depend on them to get work done. And in order for your employees – and, in turn, your business – to thrive, you need to be able to offer quality yet affordable health insurance.

But with the average cost of traditional health insurance too expensive for small businesses, what’s the solution?

Verve Offers Affordable Healthcare for Small Businesses.

At Verve Health, we drive down expensive healthcare costs for small businesses by 10–15% and 20–30% when integrated with an innovative health plan.

With our direct primary care (DPC) model, employers pay a monthly membership fee that allows their employees to directly access primary care and take control of their health.

Our passion and focus is providing quality, affordable healthcare for small to mid-sized employers.

What’s Included in Verve’s Direct Primary Care Model?

Our DPC model includes a myriad of benefits, such as the following:

• Convenient, unlimited primary care access for employees and their families
• Same/next-day appointments with minimal wait time
• Functional approach to identifying root causes, not just symptoms
• Precision diagnostics to quantify health risks and develop a personal care plan
• Chronic disease prevention and reversal
• Dedicated provider/health coach team to optimize health
• Virtual and in-office provider access
• Referrals to high-quality/value specialists, imaging, and therapy

How Verve Reduces Expensive Health Insurance Costs for Small Businesses

1. Increasing primary care engagement

Primary care engagement is the most effective means to improving health and containing health insurance costs for small businesses. Traditional plans discourage primary care utilization due to high deductibles and copays. Most primary care is owned by health systems which limits provider scope and increases costly specialist referrals. 30% of employees also lack a primary care provider. Most practices aren’t accepting new patients due to the primary care shortage.

Imagine a world where employees actually use their health benefits – which is possible with Verve!

2. Reducing urgent care/ER, specialist, and hospital services

Many people wonder what the purpose of health insurance is when it doesn’t cover needed services. Verve Health’s direct primary care reduces the need for urgent care/ER, specialist, and hospital services. When a referral is advisable, we recommend quality, affordable partners.

In the end, this saves you and your small business from unnecessary and avoidable referrals and costs.

3. Empowering employees to take control of their health

We engage members on a journey to better health and well-being. We measure early mortality risk, which forms the basis of personalized care plans. Health coaching empowers members to address root causes and adopt healthy behaviors. Our chronic disease reversal engages high-risk members and can catch diseases before they become serious and costly.

Take the First Step Today

Are you tired of health insurance costs being too expensive for your small business? Are you ready to get started offering affordable and quality primary care for your employees, while building loyalty and increasing retention? 

Book a discovery call with our staff to explore the group membership options available for small businesses, without costly health insurance premiums.

We can also recommend innovative health plans that integrate Verve direct primary care and double your healthcare cost saving!

Our team at Verve firmly believes that small businesses are the backbone of our communities, and so our passion is to support local businesses through quality healthcare services.
Contact our team today to get started.