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Benefits Canada Healthcare Survey | Thoughts from our expert

Group Insurance January 16, 2025
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By Eveline Keable
Product Manager, Health, Wellness and Disability
Group Benefits and Retirement Solutions
iA Financial Group

Our expert

 

The 27th annual Benefits Canada Healthcare Survey1 reveals a number of findings that illustrate the key role group insurance plans play in organizations.

In this first article of a three-part series, our expert Eveline Keable discusses the importance of plans for members, who rely on them to meet their needs, and for sponsors, who benefit from a valuable tool for attracting and retaining talent.

 

Personal health issues

More than half the people (58%) who responded to the survey said they had at least one chronic health condition, a proportion that continues to rise year after year. As in previous years, one in 10 people (11%) describe their health as poor, despite the considerable resources put in place by public authorities, employers and insurers.

Furthermore, when a mental health issue is added to the equation, the proportion of people reporting poor health rises to 40%. We also note that the percentage claiming to have experienced high to extreme stress on a typical day in the previous three months has risen sharply, from 27% in 2022 to 36% in 2024.

We see a clear message here: the focus on mental health support, for which needs exploded during the COVID-19 pandemic, is still absolutely necessary.

 

 

Finances = Stress

The year 2024 is the first in which personal finances have risen to the top of the list of stress factors cited by respondents. Finances as a stressor, however, have been rising steadily year after year, from 35% in 2022 to 43% this year.

We can therefore see that unfavourable socio-economic conditions that emerged during the pandemic, and which have persisted ever since, continue to have a negative impact on health.

 

 

Pillars of global health and communication

 

We believe that pandemic and post-pandemic effects have had a direct impact on health.

  • Physical health: Deterioration notably due to pressure on the public system, which has led to many delays in diagnosis and prevention.
  • Mental health: Symptoms often appearing when tension subsides after a period of intense stress.
  • Social health: Difficulties linked to isolation, lack of social support and reduced physical presence at work with the massive wave of people working remotely.
  • Financial health: Effects of difficult economic conditions and rising inflation.

This demonstrates the growing importance for group plans of addressing overall health on the basis of four main pillars: physical wellbeing, mental wellbeing, social wellbeing and financial wellbeing. We also believe that, while they are increasingly doing so, plan sponsors would do well to take an even harder look at access-to-care issues and offer solutions that address them.

The survey also reveals that, when they need medical follow-up, people generally consider access to the public health system to be “difficult”. Nearly half of them (47%) describe their experience with this system as extremely or somewhat difficult. This says a lot about the many obstacles they encounter on their path, which can sometimes become rather perilous.

Furthermore, nearly one in 10 people have little or no understanding of their group insurance plan. Fortunately, 65% understand their plan very well. There may therefore be room to optimize the understanding and use of plans and to better promote them.

This shows the importance of ongoing, clear and well-targeted communication to ensure a good understanding of the benefits and resources available. By “well-targeted communication”, we mean taking into account the specific needs and health challenges of different people and addressing them by personalizing messages and means of communication. For example, instead of communicating with women in a generic way, organizations could implement initiatives tailored to their unique feminine needs such as those related to menopause, hormone therapy, pregnancy, endometriosis and so on.

This is a factor that is often downplayed, but that can generate considerable benefits.

 

Positive impact of group insurance plans on members

In particular, the survey reveals that members can derive significant benefits from their group insurance plans.

Lack of time and high costs emerge as two of the main reasons preventing them from improving their health. A plan with health and wellness programs that are well-targeted to staff needs often helps to alleviate these issues. Offering incentives, such as support focused on total wellbeing including health spending accounts or training sessions, can also curb these barriers.

In this context, it is highly advantageous for organizations to design programs that follow a health continuum, offering tools and services adapted to each stage of plan members’ lives. Examples include prevention tools for workplace health, early and proactive interventions to prevent lost time, disability management and support for a sustainable return to work after prolonged absence. Plan members (93%) would like to make at least one lifestyle change to improve their health. Weight management (37%) and stress management (32%) are often cited as examples, highlighting the need for adequate weight management drug coverage and accessible, effective mental health support.

 

 

Importance of plans for organizations

We note that almost half of those surveyed see their group insurance plan as additional compensation. In particular, when asked whether the plan is used as additional compensation or as a resource for their health, 27% say they see it as additional compensation to be used to the fullest, while around one in five (21%) see it as a combination of both.

Moreover, while salary remains a key factor in retention for 71% of members, group insurance plans come second, cited by 41% as a deciding factor for staying with the organization.

In this respect, offering inclusive coverages for expenses related to fertility treatments, adoption or gender affirmation, for example, can meet growing needs and enhance the “compensation” aspect of plans. This type of specialized coverage is helping to evolve today’s plans, which should no longer be simply a tool for reimbursing basic medical expenses.

 

Our solutions

Our expertise in health and wellness, disability management and benefit plan design enables us to offer a variety of solutions to improve the overall health of plan members, based on the objectives and choices of each plan administrator.

We can help your clients in many ways, including with:

  • Health spending accounts
  • Virtual healthcare services
  • A range of healthcare specialist services
  • Solutions for mental health, obesity, chronic pain and musculoskeletal issues 
  • Inclusive coverages
  • Weight management drug coverage
  • Proactive and effective disability management

 

Stay tuned!

Watch for our other articles on the 2024 Benefits Canada Healthcare Survey in the upcoming editions of iAtoday.

 

Communiqué to plan administrators

Read the communiqué that will be sent to group insurance plan administrators on January 20, 2025.

See the French version of the communiqué.

 

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1 The survey was conducted online by Ipsos on behalf of Contex Group between February 28 and March 6, 2024, among a national sample of 1,001 group health plan members. Alongside this initiative was another survey conducted by Maru/Blue among 653 benefit plan administrators from March 1 to 7, 2024. For full details, visit the Benefits Canada website.

 

 

 

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