I have a question. Can companies in France self-insure? I’m guessing no and that the question doesn’t even make a great deal of sense.
That presents yet another complication for insurance reform in the United States. With so many companies self-insuring, unless you grandfather in all of those plans, requiring employers to provide (external) insurance for their employees would be earth-shattering. If you do grandfather in all of those plans, you’re going to have some difficulty in achieving cost control objectives.
In France, there is a national health insurance plan that employers pay into. The national insurance plan is supplemented by private insurance if employers want to offer that to their employees. I do not know if companies can self-insure private supplmental insurance or not.
Bear in mind that the primary reason for companies to adopt self-insurance is because the state insurance commissioners have no power to regulate them if they do so…
Kind of what I was getting at, Alex. Avoiding state regulation might be one of the reasons but the primary reason most companies give for self-insurance is capturing the money that would otherwise be spent in premium payments.
Of course the fact that companies self-insure or buy insurance on the market directly contributes to the rampant age discrimination in employment. Insurance is an evil any way you look at it.
Alex –
Do you have a reference for that? As a multiple business owner its been my experience that the cost issue (when size permits) outweighs the regulatory one. That is, when we have a business big enough (we are small business owners) we self insure. Regulatory considerations have not been prominant.
Jimbino –
total nonsense.