A recent article in the Denver Business Journal titled “Cutting benefits beats cutting jobs,” seems to be the sign of the times.  The majority of the group renewals that I have been doing over the past few months have been asking to cut benefits to save jobs and I am trying to help them do just that. 

One recent home builder called requesting to cut benefits specifically to try to keep all of his staff and to be able to keep a health insurance policy at all.  It is a small group of 7 and we all sat down together, discussed plans, options, costs associated and what sacrifices they were willing to make.  At the end of the process, we had a much less expensive policy, with more limited benefits, but it was health insurance.  They could still go to the doctor for $25 and get their prescriptions covered with copays. 

A few days later I ran into one of the employees and he actually thanked me.  It turns out they were fearful that they would not be able to find a plan to meet the budget of the company and they thought they would either be left without health coverage or without jobs.   I told him I was learning to be creative with benefits.  These tough financial times are causing us all to think in ways that we hadn’t before.

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