When business owners think of employee benefits, they most often think of health coverage. Although employers are not required by law to provide health insurance benefits (except in Hawaii), many companies choose to do so. As of March 2016, 52 percent of all American civilians with health insurance got it through their employers. Here are a few reasons as to why providing a solid medical plan for your employees is good for them and good for your business.

Save Money

Health insurance can be a major expense for an individual, particularly if he or she has a family to cover, as well. Meanwhile, you can take advantage of group health plans to save money on the policies. This can include major medical coverage as well as supplemental policies like dental, vision, and even critical illness, like cancer.

Keep Your Employees Healthy

A good health plan allows for preventative screenings and health checks, and encourages employees to seek the medical help they need to get better faster. If they wait for an illness to pass because they’re concerned about out-of-pocket medical expenses, they could end up missing a lot more work. In fact, employers in the United States, lose $225.8 billion in productivity every year due to absenteeism.

By offering a good health plan and promoting a healthy lifestyle within your company, you can also…

  • …increase morale.
  • …decrease turnover.
  • …reduce stress among employees.
  • …increase job satisfaction among employees.
  • …establish your company as caring and tuned in.

You might choose to implement additional wellness programs, like a gym membership or office fitness challenge, to improve health and morale. By helping employees stay fit and healthy, they might not have to make as many claims on their insurance, which in turn helps to keep the premiums low.

Attract Top Talent

The best of the best know what they’re worth. Why would they settle for no health benefits when they can go to another company and get what they want and need?

If you want to attract top-notch talent, you’ve got to offer top-notch benefits, and a health plan is a key part of that. The 2016 Health and Voluntary Workplace Benefits Survey found that employees “… continue to value employment-based health insurance as their most important benefit. Eighty-seven percent of workers report that employment-based health insurance is extremely or very important.”

From Ft. Lauderdale to San Francisco and everywhere in between, employers in the United States benefit from offering a great health care plan to their employees. Offering health care coverage may be considered the right thing to do, but you can’t deny the many ways it can work to increase your company’s bottom line.

Although health care and insurance has changed a lot over the last few years, and it will likely continue to do so, companies owe it to themselves to keep up with the changes and adapt as needed to provide for their employees and stay competitive both as an employer and as a revenue-generating business.