Why don’t HRs ask for flexible insurance covers?

Why don’t HRs ask for flexibility from insurance providers? For instance, one will be entitled to a cover for four biological children and a spouse, but they don’t have a spouse and children yet they have many dependents that they are responsible for. Ben

Dear Ben,
Companies provide medical cover for their employees as a benefit to ensure that the employees and their families are secure in case they are afflicted by sickness. Since in most organisations medical benefit is contractual, companies negotiate with insurance companies to take out covers for their employees’ hospital outpatient visits, dental, optical and other treatments to even include funeral covers in case of death of employee or their dependants. The various medical insurance covers may vary according to seniority and/or contractual entitlement of various categories of staff. Insurance companies are also in the business of making money and ensuring a reasonable return for their shareholders. They hence develop medical insurance packages and indicate the limits for each cover for each premium paid. What we have to bear in mind is that insurance covers/policies are not transferable, ie if one employee is insured but hasn’t fallen sick throughout the whole year and yet another colleague has used up theirs, the unused funds cant be transferred to another. This, however, notwithstanding, insurance companies are in realty operating in a very competitive market and this has forced many to innovatively come up with attractive medical family covers that can address most of their client’s needs.
The HR manager in your company can negotiate flexible covers to mitigate most medical risks their staff may be facing without blowing the medical bills through the roof.

Moses Ssesanga
Head Human Resource
Monitor Publications Limited
[email protected]