Is The Health Care Mess Affecting Your Business?

I would bet it is one way or another. You may not realize or know that it is, but…

An Interesting article from AAA earlier this year mentioned that 1/3 of all drivers CAN’T afford to pay an unexpected repair bill on their car. We know many consumers are now being forced to choose between ___ and being able to pay for their prescriptions or paying for their health insurance.

You may remember, like I do, the days when we were able to provide fully paid health insurance to all our staff. Then it became cost prohibitive to do. Few companies today are able to provide fully paid health insurance as a benefit to their employees, and that, coupled with costs skyrocketing, is having a negative effect on consumers’ budgets.

I recently spoke with someone who mentioned he had to let his health insurance lapse because he couldn’t afford the premium. This is NOT meant to be about the cost of health care (my blood pressure can’t handle it right now.) But right now the cost of health care in general is causing a lot of folks to make tough decisions.

AAA recommended to their members and consumers in general that they negotiate the repair bill with the repair shop and to ask, “If there are any discounts or payment plans that can reduce immediate out-of-pocket costs.”

The Challenge For Business Owners

This is a challenge many industries WILL or ARE facing: consumers eating out less or choosing less expensive options when eating out, or looking for coupons or discounts to be able to do so. Whether you like it or not, this is a challenge you have to, or will have to, address in your business. If you don’t have some form of third party financing available for your customers, it’s something you might look at. There are a lot of companies who offer it. Possibly different ways for them to pay.

I do NOT recommend you finance it yourself!

Question: Are you seeing an increase in customers asking/attempting to negotiate the quoted price lower or asking you for payment plans? I believe unless the health care mess is addressed by our government, you will soon see an increase in consumers attempting to negotiate reduce the bill you present to them.

Not helping is the belief, especially among Millennials, that they “can always find it cheaper.” They feel (know) they can usually go online and find whatever they want for a lower price than what you’re presenting. We saw it with Christmas shopping; it’s the reason there was such a big increase in online shopping this year versus last year. Most waited for the best “deals” – those deals could be found on Black Friday, Cyber Monday or…

The Solution

This is a challenge best solved by adding more customers into your funnel! If you’d like to learn more about creative ways to bring more new customers to your business, register now to attend our Small Business Workshop – click here for more details.