People first: fair health insurance for your global team
Practical advice for providing fair benefits
More and more company leaders are building people-first organizations. But what does that really mean?
Even if a company’s people are a priority, taking the right steps to care for your employees can be an obscure process. One concrete way to prioritize your people is through benefits. But just providing benefits like health insurance isn’t enough. Especially in large or global teams, inequalities in health insurance, difficulty in accessing coverage, or other unmet needs could undermine your efforts.
Understanding fair health insurance
Providing fair health insurance is made up of a few different elements:
Access to treatment: Consider restrictions of your healthcare plan(s) such as whether coverage is bound by healthcare networks. Even though a plan may include everything your employees need on paper, restrictive networks or a limited number of facilities or doctors in certain areas can mean denied treatments, denied medications, or even denied procedures. Giving your people the freedom to choose where they use their healthcare means they can always get the treatment they need.
Hidden differences: Even if you find “identical” plans in different regions, your employees might have very different experiences with their coverage. For example, one plan might have extra costs (e.g., deductibles, co-pays) that the employee will have to bear, while another might offer fewer benefits (low coverage limits or access to fewer clinics).
Eligibility: International insurers or EORs may not cover small groups of remote employees that are in a separate country, leaving some of your global team without benefits at all. Traditional benefits options also may not take other equity issues into account. For example, same sex partners are not recognized in some countries (or on their local health insurance plans) as eligible dependents, meaning they’re not able to be covered.
Fairness is not equality: Truly fair coverage is giving everyone what they need in a similarly accessible way. Equality, on the other hand, can be gamed. For example, simply giving everyone a healthcare stipend is theoretically equal. However, varying coverage gaps, hidden costs, and potential exclusion make this “equal” option unfair.
Fairness is a particularly important topic here at SafetyWing, as it's a key part of our mission to remove the barrier of geographic borders to create equal opportunities and freedom for everyone. This mindset in turn became the foundation of Remote Health, a network-free global health insurance provider that’s accessible in 175+ countries.
A guide to fair health benefits for your global team
Follow this roadmap to provide health insurance that’s fair for everyone.
1. Audit your existing coverage
If you already have group health insurance, start by getting a true understanding of the benefits you offer.
Understand the coverage in these core categories: emergencies, doctor’s visits and prescriptions, routine check-ups, dental, vision and wellness for the plan(s) you’re offering.
Document any noticeable gaps in coverage— is health insurance available to all team members? Are dependents offered coverage? While benefits may look good on paper, check unbiased, public review sites like TrustPilot to verify if a provider’s plan offerings are true from an on-the-ground perspective.
Look for any regional differences in coverage with things like networks and eligibility in addition to the benefits.
Do a walkthrough of how the coverage is accessed— what are the steps an employee needs to follow to access their coverage and what limits apply, if any?
2. Survey employees to understand their needs and the gaps in your coverage
Your employees are your best source of information when trying to figure out how to provide fair benefits. Survey your employees about their experiences and medical needs to find a solution that fits your team.
3. Find a provider that fills the gaps
As you research new health insurance providers, look for two key requirements:
Global coverage: Look for a global provider that can offer benefits to your entire team. While many companies offer international insurance, look out for different approaches in different countries and even exclusions. Not all global insurance is created equal.
Access to treatment: If you want to offer best-in-class benefits to your employees, it has to come with the freedom to choose who they see and what kind of treatment they can access. Limited networks can shut the door on better care opportunities or the treatment they need.
4. Consider all team members
The world of work is changing—more companies are working with contractors, part-time employees, and freelancers all around the world.
As a result, you can (and arguably should) offer health insurance to every team member, though the execution might be different. For instance, you might pay the premiums for full-time employees but offer freelancers the right to pay for their own coverage on your group plan.
While it may not sound fair for a worker to pay for their own coverage, being part of a group plan is already significantly more attractive than individual coverage. Group plans are cheaper and more likely to accept people because the risk is spread across the group. Allowing contractors or freelancers to join your group plan can save them money and give them a better chance of getting great coverage compared to hunting down and buying a plan on their own, while remaining an independent business.
5. Help your team understand their benefits
Partner with a provider that will support you and your team in understanding your benefits. Education should include:
Core benefits available to all employees (explicitly highlighting routine care, prescription and/or dental coverage, specialist coverage, and wellness benefits).
Coverage use, both in cases of direct billing and manually claiming a provider should explain to your team how the financial side of their benefits works.
Adding dependents: explain how this works and what the process looks like.
Novel features of the coverage (e.g., complementary therapies such as massage, chiropractors or mental health visits), if applicable.
Launch! Make an announcement to your team with these educational tools so they feel confident in using their new benefits, then enjoy this exciting time with your people!
Given the importance of health and wellness, a fair health insurance plan means giving employees a better quality of life.
Working with a global plan like Remote Health can make all of the above easy and affordable for benefits administrators— if you're interested, book a call with us.
Katie Smith
Account Manager, Remote Health at SafetyWing
Katie curates, supports and cultivates access to healthcare for remote workers around the world.
Katie Smith
Account Manager, Remote Health at SafetyWing
Katie curates, supports and cultivates access to healthcare for remote workers around the world.
