Health benefits are the second-largest expense for most companies, averaging $26,993 per year for a family plan, yet no one owns this number. Unlike every other P&L line item, health spend grows unchecked because carriers and brokers profit from increases. Two-thirds of U.S. workers are already in self-funded plans where employers directly manage claims and treat health like any other business expense.
Chapters
Walk through your P&L line by line and ask one question: who owns this number? Payroll? Owned. Rent? Owned. Software, freight, travel? Owned, owned, owned. Somebody's name is on every one of them, and when a number moves, that somebody has to stand up and explain why. Then you get to health benefits, the second biggest expense in most companies. The average family plan in America now runs $26,993 a year. And who owns that one? Nobody. It gets a meeting, a sigh, a signature, and a renewal. Here's what all my years around this industry taught me. An unowned number always grows. Always. Because everybody on the other side of it owns it just fine. The carrier owns it. It's their revenue. The middlemen own it. It's their spread. The billing department owns it. It's their sticker price. Your shrug is their business model. And the part that should make you angry? Ownership is sitting right there. Two-thirds of covered workers in this country are already in self-funded plans, companies that pay their own claims, read their own data, and treat health spend like every other line in the building. Questioned, managed, owned. Same doctors, same networks, different owner of the money. So here's your Friday homework. One question, 5 words. Who owns our health number? Not who signs it. Not who administers it. Who owns it? If the room goes quiet, congratulations. You just found out why it only ever goes up. I stopped accepting the shrug a long time ago. Time you did too.
