By: Strategy Achievers LLC.
Health insurance is still considered one of the benefits employees look for when considering new employment. Employers know this and try to offer reasonable healthcare plans to incentivize new talent and retain current employees. According to research, employers with comprehensive health benefit plans are a priority for job seekers.
Regardless, the cost of health insurance continues to rise. Rules and regulations are constantly being imposed by the government for insurance companies, employers, and employees. While employers and employees bear the brunt of the deal, the current structure still benefits all of the major health insurance companies (aka “carriers”) around the Country. This is clearly reflected in their share prices throughout the Country. Independent research finds that the average cost per employee per year (PEPY) was almost $14,000.00 in 2022, while the average premium increase was 6.5% across the board.
This means a company of just 100 employees spends about 1.4 million dollars every single year in America. And if that number went up by 6.5%, that means a one-year increase of $91,000.00 for every company of 100 employees across this Country. Try to imagine running a company of this size, having a relatively healthy population, and hearing your overall costs just went up by almost $100,000 and there’s almost nothing you can do about it.
One man is advocating for real change in an industry riddled with challenges and resistance to reforms and his name is John Butler. An independent healthcare consultant and the founder of JB Benefits Consulting, John is on a mission to revolutionize the business health benefits industry.
John is driven by a passion for free-market principles and a zeal to empower employers with knowledge and strategies to put real choice and competition in healthcare. His business seeks to dramatically reduce the cost of premiums for companies, but even more importantly, he has discovered a clear path towards zero-deductible offerings regardless of the size of the company.
Additionally, he has written and self-published a book, “Health Insurance Sucks,” that offers innovative plans and approaches for business healthcare.
From Selling Popcorn to Financial Advisor
John Butler grew up in Bloomington, Minnesota. He attended Kennedy High before pursuing higher education at Moorhead State College. His first taste of the working world was at the old Met stadium at the age of 15, where he sold pop and popcorn during Minnesota Twins games. This was long before the stadium was destroyed and the Mall of America was built in its place. After college, John had several odd jobs before finding his footing in the securities industry and eventually landing a full-time position at Mass Mutual Companies in 1988. While there, he was honored as the Rookie of the Year and won a trip to Hawaii. These were the early beginnings of a long illustrious career as a financial advisor.
In 1996, John took a leap of faith and started his entrepreneurial journey. He established JB Benefits Consulting and purchased a block of employee benefits business from a colleague at Mass Mutual Companies. This opportunity put him in charge of managing benefits like health, life, dental, and disability insurance for small to mid-sized businesses. He started with 26 companies and grew his block of business to 110 companies within three short years.
There was one persistent challenge that kept nagging at him. Business health insurance costs continued to rise while benefits were diminishing, leaving companies with little freedom to make lasting changes and impacts. Despite his business success, he felt he had to challenge the status quo and champion choice and competition in health benefits. It was at this time John realized he was simply “part of the problem”.
Business Healthcare Advocate
After selling his block of employee benefits business in September of 2023, John was completely free to offer his particular brand of choice & competition, and it looks like now he has injected it with steroids.
John’s 12+ year journey brought him to the realization that there are brokers at different brokerage firms around the Country who are performing far above the status quo. They can reduce an employer’s costs dramatically while actually improving benefits for employees. In fact, John and his colleagues have found a straight-line path to offering zero deductibles that employers across the nation believe to be impossible in this day and age.
“The problem is, (John says), nobody knows about these new systems or these amazing business healthcare warriors”.
John’s new vision is to bring these courageous soldiers into the boardrooms of employers across the nation through something he calls his “Fast-Track RFP”. A no-risk way for employers to finally elevate the concept of choice and competition into the business healthcare world.
John states, “It seemed rather senseless to me that companies are literally left to guess as to which broker (inside of the thousands of brokerage firms) to put on an RFP to bid on their business health insurance.”
We personally found no search engines that identified any 5-star ratings of brokers from our efforts. John’s research found that the best-of-the-best were averaging $6000 to $8,000 per employee per year, not the outrageous amount of almost $14,000 PEPY average across the nation.
John’s research and findings culminated in his self-published book, “Health Insurance Sucks,” which came out in 2021. The book explores the major flaws within the current health insurance system and guides employers on practical ways they can offer health benefits to their employees. It equips them to have the upper hand against big health insurance and big pharma. It is also a call to action for employers to take back control of their costs, and even offer employees zero deductibles to put employee’s minds at ease when a loved one is faced with a major illness or injury.
According to a recent study from Academic Researchers medical bankruptcies account for 66.5% of all of the bankruptcies across the nation. Now that John has found a clear path towards zero deductibles for employers and their employees, he is aiming to change this horrible reality.
Rather than lining the pockets of “the takers” within what John calls “the Cartel System”, he is dedicated to changing the incentives within the system, to finally benefit the people who are at the heart of who he really cares about, the employers and employees that are paying for all of this mess.
Published by: Nelly Chavez