How to make the most of flexible health benefits in employer plans
As a result, everyday healthcare, from consultations and diagnostics to preventive care, often remained an afterthought, while many employees found themselves paying out of pocket for the benefits they actually needed. The obvious solution would have been to offer every possible benefit, from parental care and critical illness cover to fertility treatment, mental health support and gym memberships. But that didn’t work for two reasons. First, plans quickly became prohibitively expensive. Second, many specialised benefits, such as fertility treatment or critical illness cover, are relevant to less than 2% of the employee base. This resulted in low adoption and forced employers to make difficult trade-offs, often investing in benefits that most employees would never use.
