Kingsfoil Health

Most companies are shown one of the seven ways to answer a renewal increase.

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Premiums climb 10 to 30% a year for most small and mid-size businesses, on what's usually your second-largest expense after payroll. If the answer you got was "we'll shop it to a few carriers," you've seen a fraction of the market.

The guide walks through every path a company of 10 to 500+ people actually has, and how to tell which ones fit yours.

  • Why a fully funded plan prices your company against everyone else's claims
  • All seven paths, and which ones fit a company your size
  • How level-funded plans work, in plain language
  • The questions to put to your current broker before you sign anything

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Free guide, 8 pages

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10 to 30%
a year: how fast premiums climb for most small and mid-size businesses
7
structural ways to answer a renewal increase
1 or 2
of them shown in most renewal conversations

Why the number keeps going up

None of this is anybody being difficult. It's how the standard arrangement is built.

You're priced against a pool

On a fully funded plan, a smaller group gets priced largely against a shared pool. Your premium reflects other companies' claims as much as your own, so keeping your people healthy may never show up in your renewal.

A good year returns nothing

If your team barely used the plan, whatever you paid in that the carrier didn't spend stays with the carrier. Nothing comes back. That's the deal, and most businesses have never been shown a version where it works differently.

Re-shopping repeats the year

Comparing fully funded quotes against other fully funded quotes is real work, and it does help: 5 to 15%, though results vary. It also leaves you in the same structure, facing the same letter next October.

The seven paths

Every one of these is a real option for a company of your size. Most renewal conversations cover the first two.

  1. Negotiate with your current carrier

    The first number isn't always the final number. Worth asking for, rarely enough on its own.

  2. Shop competing fully funded carriers

    The standard response, and the one most companies get. It saves 5 to 15%, though results vary, and next year starts the same way.

  3. Level-funded plans

    You fund your expected claims and keep what isn't spent. Stop-loss insurance caps the bad year.

  4. PEO partnership

    A professional employer organization pools your employees with other companies to buy coverage and run HR administration. If it's the right answer for you, we say so, even though a PEO isn't ours to sell.

  5. ICHRA

    An individual coverage health reimbursement arrangement. You give each employee a set amount, tax-free, to buy their own coverage instead of running a group plan.

  6. Strategic plan design changes

    Reshaping deductibles and adding tax-free accounts your people draw on for medical costs, an HRA or an HSA, so the plan costs less without cutting what they get.

  7. Reference-based pricing

    You pay providers a set multiple of the Medicare rate rather than relying on a negotiated network discount.

All seven, explained properly

The guide takes each path in turn: how it works, who it suits, and what to watch for. Eight pages, written for someone who hasn't had to think about plan structures before.

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Why path three comes up first for companies like yours

A level-funded plan is priced against your group rather than a pool: your claims history, the age and health profile of your people, your industry, and where you are. You fund your expected claims, stop-loss insurance covers the bad year, and if claims come in under what you funded, some or all of the difference can come back to you. For a salaried team that doesn't use much care, that's the whole point.

If you're in Utah, one more thing matters. The state kept its small-group line at 1 to 50 employees rather than raising it to 100, so a Utah company of 51 to 99 people sits in the large-group market and can be medically underwritten. That company can reach risk-bearing structures its counterpart in a state that moved the line can't.

What a web page can't tell you

Your actual rate, the point where stop-loss takes over, and the size of any year-end refund are underwriting outputs. They depend on your claims file and the carrier's read of your group, and they vary by contract. Getting them takes a real quote. Anyone who hands you a savings number before seeing your numbers is guessing.

What you get from us

We show you all the options

Fully funded, level-funded, PEO, ICHRA, and plan design, analyzed for your company rather than listed in a brochure.

We partner with PEOs instead of fighting them

If a PEO is the best answer for your company, that's the recommendation you get.

We stay after the sale

Year-round support, help for your people navigating care, and plan performance reviews, instead of one meeting a year.

When we'd tell you not to bother

  • You're already on a level-funded, self-funded, or PEO plan. Somebody's shown you these options, and the analysis has less to add.
  • You have fewer than about 10 employees. The alternatives need more scale than that before they start to help.
  • Your renewal is more than a quarter away and nothing about the current plan is hurting. Come back when the letter arrives.

Where we're licensed

Kingsfoil Health is licensed in Arizona, California, Florida, Missouri, North Carolina, New York, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. If your company is somewhere else, tell us. We add the licence for your state before we advise you.

Run all seven against your own numbers

We do this analysis for every client, free, with no obligation. All seven paths, measured against your current plan and laid side by side before you decide anything. If the answer is that you should stay where you are, that's what we'll tell you.

Compare your options

Not ready to talk? Start with the guide.