[ William Kramer, Benefits Selling Magazine ]
The principal reason for the increase has been well documented. As employers nationwide increasingly scale back health benefits to keep overall costs down, more and more workers and their families find themselves uninsured. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 45 million Americans, or roughly 15 percent of the U.S. population, do not have health insurance.
So employers are turning towards a new type of health care coverage for their ineligible employees or for employees who no longer can afford the contribution costs of the sponsored major medical plan.
In the early days of min-meds, these plans were instantly popular with employees at fast-food restaurants, retail workers at big-box stores, casino employees, temp agency personnel, and other part-time, seasonal or hourly employees with limited or no access to traditional, employer-paid health insurance. In addition, many small employers who can no longer carry the burden of high monthly premiums have been forced to cancel their group coverage all together. Such employers, seeking alternatives to expensive, comprehensive major medical plans, have increasingly turned to Limited-med plans...
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