A Health Plan Without Flex Benefits is Like Salad Without Dressing

Flexible Spending Accounts and salad dressing arechanged and companies everywhere have
very unalike yet both perform the same function:swallowed the bitter pill of moving to deductible
they make things more palatable.plans, just so the skyrocketing premiums wouldn't
I thought of this immediately after a lunchbankrupt them.
meeting with the CEO, CFO and HR Director of aThe new health plans come with many employee
mid-size manufacturing firm. I had prepared aout-of-pocket expenses; deductibles (which your
lengthy compilation of proposed benefit planHRA helps with), higher co-pays and higher
changes but before I dove into it, we ordered ourco-insurances. All of these are huge cost burdens
meals. I ordered a salad with my meal and askedfor employees, especially those living from
for blue cheese dressing on the side. However,paycheck to paycheck. That's where the FSA
when the waitress brought it over there was nocomes in. Think of it as your health plan's very
dressing.own digestive system. The days of 5 dollar
The CEO immediately pointed out the fact thatco-pays are long gone and employees need
my dressing was missing and encouraged me tosomething to make the costs go down easier.
flag down the waitress and ask for it. He statedNow, I bet when salad dressing was first invented
that I asked for the dressing and it was my rightpeople were a little skeptical about it. Most likely,
to be given what I asked for, just like it was theno one really thought that putting a liquid on top
waitress' job to bring it to me. Although he had aof their salad would actually make it taste better.
valid point I thought nothing of it, after all, I had aThey all probably just stuck with the old routines,
huge presentation to give and nothing else on myjust chewing and swallowing the bland, tasteless
mind.greens that they knew were good for them,
After the presentation, the CEO, CFO, HRmaybe holding their noses a bit to make it easier
Director and I returned to their office to see meon their taste buds. However, a brave few
off. While in the car, the CEO asked me thisprobably tried the dressing and loved it because it
question "Why did you push the FSA so much inactually made salad taste good. They told their
your presentation?"friends all about the dressing, they tried it, liked it
There seemed to me no better way to explain itand continued to spread the word.
than to call to mind a scene from earlier. So, IThe same thing happens with a typical FSA plan.
answered his question by stating:Most employees exhibit reluctance to join at first
"John, do you remember in the restaurant when(i.e. they don't think it's for them, don't think
the waitress forgot my dressing and youthey're eligible, dislike the thought of "use it or lose
encouraged me to ask her for it? You were veryit", etc.) yet several brave souls join and
right in encouraging me to do this because afterexperience substantial tax savings. Like the early
all, what's a salad without dressing? Salad dressingadopters of salad dressing, they tell their
makes the salad more palatable, it makes thecolleagues about the FSA and many elect to enroll
dry, bland greens of the salad go down a lotnext plan year.
easier. And, just like dressing makes salad moreIn closing the reason why I pushed the FSA was
palatable, FSAs make your health plan morebecause it's my job to do so. Just like it was the
palatable."waitress' job to bring me a digestive aide for my
You see, back 20, 30, 40 or even just 10 yearssalad, it's my job as a broker (and essentially the
ago health plans were easy to digest. Everyoneserver of your benefit plans) to bring employees
had first dollar coverage on just about everythinga product that helps them digest consumer driven
and times were good so premiums were neverhealth plans better.
really a huge deal. However, the times have