The cost of employee healthcare benefits is rising at a higher rate in India compared to the global average. Rising healthcare costs & the burden on the insurance industries have led to a huge upsurge in the premium rates.

In such times, companies have started adopting newer policies to decrease the costs by implementing co-pay insurance policies for employees. A lot of companies are doing away with the parental insurance covers. According to a survey by Marsh India Insurance Brokers, last year 65% of the organizations provided insurance covers for dependent parents whereas this year the number has come down to 54%.

A lot of organizations have started to opt for lower covers and lower sub-limits for particular items like room rent. This is bound to increase the risk for employees and a total financial exposure in case of some accident or eventuality.

CEO of BerkshireInsurance.com, Arun Balakrishnan claims that slashing the healthcare benefits is a common practice that corporates are adopting as a cost-cutting measure, and as a result employees are left with no option but to resort to personal covers as well.

It stands to be argued that instead of exposing employees to financial uncertainties, companies need to employ better strategies to bring down the healthcare costs. This could be done by requesting employees with higher policies to use low cost hospitals for minor ailments or by informing the insurance company well in advance for planned treatments.