Health insurance isn’t just a benefit: It’s a business decision with personal consequences

$25,000 a year for a family health insurance plan. A figure so staggering it made me do a double-take. The amount rivals the price of a car and does not even include out-of-pocket expenses. Until recently, this number — and health insurance in general — felt distant from my everyday life. As a second-year business student, I knew health insurance was important, but I had not really considered how these costs came to be or who was making the decisions behind them.

That changed after attending a presentation by Hylant, a risk management and insurance consulting firm, where Beth Ahrendt and Vanessa Kinney explained how employers design health benefits. What surprised me was not just how expensive health care is, but the many layers of decision making that happen before an employee ever sees a plan option. The complexity employees experience often stems from the equally complex decisions made at the employer level. This insight helped me see how business decisions around health care coverage directly shape individual experiences, making the system feel far more real and personal than I had ever considered.

Hylant helps organizations design employee benefits with four outcomes in mind: a positive member experience, improved health outcomes, lower costs of care and a positive provider experience. Hearing these priorities together clarified something I hadn’t fully considered before: health insurance is not just a product employees are expected to “figure out,” but a strategic business decision with real consequences for individuals.

Why this matters for students and future leaders 

One of the most eye-opening parts of the seminar was the breakdown of employer funding strategies. Learning the differences between fully insured, level-funded and self-funded plans revealed how much control and financial risk employers assume depending on the plan design. These models differ in how much financial risk employers assume, how predictable costs are and how much flexibility exists in plan design.

While employees typically see only premiums and deductibles, these upstream decisions shape access to care, cost-sharing and even how easy it is to seek treatment. Understanding this connection helped me see why health insurance feels so confusing at the employee level; it is so difficult to understand what is covered, what is not and how much care will actually cost. 

That confusion is widespread. In fact, 96% of Americans do not understand basic health plan terminology, a statistic that reflects how overwhelming the health care system is. Employees are expected to navigate a system they did not design, choosing from limited options while trying to minimize personal cost and risk. Because these funding decisions directly affect employees’ costs and access to care, it becomes essential for individuals to understand their options and what each plan actually offers. 

The human consequences of these decisions became especially clear through a story shared during the presentation about a woman who received conflicting cancer diagnoses from different providers. The story showed that health care decisions can have life-altering consequences. As someone who has always viewed insurance as paperwork rather than a strategic tool, this perspective fundamentally changed how I think about coverage options. 

Understanding the cost and complexity of care

This seminar truly reshaped how I think about health care. Understanding health insurance is no longer optional. Not only are costs high, but employer decisions and employee experiences are deeply linked. For students like me, these concepts are not distant and will directly shape the choices we make as consumers, employees and future leaders.

This blog post is based on insights shared during a Risk Series panel discussion featuring Beth Ahrendt, Managing Partner at Hylant Employee Benefits, and Vanessa Kinney, Vice President and Team Leader of Employee Benefits Operations at Hylant.