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Our Global Health & Benefits Perspective and related material cover the health & benefits landscape.
On this page, you can access past issues of the Global Health & Benefits Perspective and download the PDFs in English.
You may also directly access the topic-based collection or the geography-based collection. All editions:
Employer-sponsored worksite health: Offering solutions across the globe
Employers across the globe have strived to effectively manage rising health care spend by engaging employees to understand and seek to improve their health situation. This article takes an in-depth look at the recent surge of interest in onsite health centers and employers' emerging practices for reaching employees in smaller, more remote locations.
Health + Engagement = Productivity Global imperatives for investment in health management are numerous with increasing health costs, an aging workforce, competition of talent and employee engagement and productivity topping the list. This article will look at how to achieve a healthy and productive workforce and get ahead of the competition by investing in well-being, creating healthy habits to support behavioral change, understanding and being aware of mental health conditions and establishing care pathways for employees.
Health benefits for an aging population in the UK Continuing medical advances and a greater understanding of health risks (particularly around the dangers of smoking and obesity) are helping individuals around the world live longer, but not always healthier, lives. This article takes a look at what’s causing mortality rates to drop, how trends affect the cost of health benefits, what governments are doing, and how employers and individuals can work together to improve workplace wellness.
Health, choice and engagement in Asia Pacific Employers in the emerging markets of Asia Pacific face the dynamic realities of significant economic growth as well as increasing employee health risks and rising demand for services. This article will look at survey findings that show how in an environment where employers are faced with the need to contain costs, retain key employees and engage workers, choice is emerging as one of the strongest competitive tools in the Asia Pacific HR arsenal.
“Glocal health”: Global strategy, local programs Leveraging insights and data at headquarters to develop internal competencies and a foundation for global health management. Multinational employers are increasingly seeking to develop health strategies that balance global economies of scale with locally relevant elements.
Emerging challenges ... and opportunities ... in the US A new year always brings with it new possibilities, but the fear of the “unknown” can also cause worry. After last year’s tumultuous road to get the health reform ball rolling, many employers are now wondering what lies ahead and how they will manage soaring health care costs and comply with a dizzying array of new requirements while maintaining the value of employee benefits.
The growing demand for health benefits in Europe In Europe, health care is on everyone’s mind these days. Government programs are facing budget deficits, employers are rethinking benefit and compensation programs against the backdrop of the economic recession, and employees are worried about access to service and the quality of coverage.
Informed decisions enable intelligent medical cost control Database analysis can serve a lot of purposes, and with a little thinking outside the box, it can provide invaluable insight and help companies identify areas of potential cost savings. Employee health benefits are a particular area where everyone is looking to save money. Keeping benefit plan costs low while still offering employees value requires doing statistical and actuarial data analysis related to employees’ medical claims and using this information to intelligently design plans to better deliver against their objectives.
Rethinking employee-paid benefits Flexible and voluntary benefit programs are helping employers continue to provide the benefits their employees want, while simultaneously controlling costs. The drivers behind these programs differ in the US and the UK, but several common employer requisites are created. This article describes the approaches taken in both countries and provides models that may be applied to other markets.
Health care reform is a key initiative for many countries in Europe. Although the mixture of funding and delivery models varies, each country faces similar cost pressures in its national health program. Governments are trying to reduce their exposure to health care funding by “cost shifting” the burden to employers and individuals. Organizations need to know how this will affect them and their employees and what measures they can take to manage this risk.
Optimizing your benefits investment in Asia Currently at the forefront of global economic expansion, companies in many Asian countries are increasingly facing challenges attracting and retaining the talent needed to sustain their present level of growth. In most of Asia, companies have traditionally differentiated themselves on the basis of salary, job title and perceived prestige of the employer brand. However, there is a pressing need for many organizations to evolve a broader value proposition for employees by leveraging the value of non-salary compensation, most notably employee benefits. This article presents four related strategies for attracting, retaining and engaging employees.
Creating an optimal and sustainable workforce In the next few decades, Dutch employers will face a very tight labor market, with the workforce projected to shrink due to the aging population. This article describes how employers can develop programs and other solutions that will help them identify and prevent workforce shortages and inefficiencies in the coming years, as well as ways to increase productivity and innovation.
Health benefits in Argentina: Collective bargaining agreements While the economic expansion in Argentina continues to be welcomed by its citizens, this trend has been creating a dilemma for companies in terms of health care coverage. HR specialists must manage short-term pressures from strong trade unions while they simultaneously try to develop long-term benefit strategies. The trade unions’ demands are the direct result of the second highest inflation rate in the region, after Venezuela’s. In the long term, organizations need to identify, develop, recognize and retain key talent so that they will have the right people in place to lead their companies in the future – but they must achieve this at a sustainable cost. That’s why health care provision presents a dilemma to employers right now.
As the world’s largest businesses become increasingly global, employer-employee relationships are evolving fast. But one factor remains constant: Employee well-being affects productivity, morale, and the ability to attract and retain workers. This article explores how employers can promote employee health and well-being across cultures with diverse needs.
Leveraging regional benefits management in Asia Despite Asia’s economic rebound, employee engagement levels and morale have not grown at the same rate. Regional Benefits Management (RBM) in Asia is an effective way to leverage a firm’s regional economies of scale, optimize current employee benefits spend, achieve cost savings, and provide a cost-effective means of competitive differentiation.
Benefit coverage for local subsidiaries: A simple, cost-effective approach When implementing a global benefits project, multinationals often find that countries with the fewest employees have the greatest challenges sourcing competitive benefits at competitive rates and ensuring a good level of service. This article describes an approach that addresses these issues.
Spotlight on Brazil: he role of health management in attracting and retaining employees A key challenge for employers in Brazil is to manage employment costs while keeping a sharp focus on resources, skills, and attracting and retaining talent. Companies with good benefits practices are continuing to invest in health management.
Health care reform and total health management: Opportunities to manage cost and compliance While health care reform primarily emerged as insurance reform, there are significant implications for health plan program design and incentives. This article describes how companies and subsidiaries based in the US can use a Total Health Management framework to address the challenges of the recent health reform legislation.
American Express succeeds with Healthy Living in India Healthy Living is an approach American Express has taken globally to improve the health of employees and their families.
More centralized benefit management for Latin American multinationals Regional benefit strategies with a more centralized approach are highly recommended and are becoming a noticeable trend, mainly for multinational companies. This article describes six typical company concerns and what can be done to address them.
The battle for US health reform The lack of consensus means that reform, as legislation and law, will continue to be a volatile issue. Read why this has proved to be such a challenge and what companies with employees in the US should be doing in the meantime.
Massachusetts Health Reform: model for a nation? The Massachusetts Health Care Reform Law was an innovative experiment that extended health insurance to thousands of uninsured residents. Which elements of the Massachusetts reform could be applied to the nation as a whole and which should not?
Medicaid, the largest health care benefit program in the United States, provides health care coverage to qualifying low-income individuals and families along with the elderly and disabled. With tax revenues falling sharply and the number of applications for Medicaid benefits hitting an all-time high, the Medicaid glass is broken.
Health management and absence management in Europe The region is out of step in terms of educating employees about health risks and ways to improve their health. This article provides an overview of current practices, innovation, and major health and absence management challenges facing companies throughout Europe.
Redefining the health benefits market in India The health insurance sector is currently going through an upheaval in India. This article explores how organizations may be able to change health care cost and utilization trends.
Intensive care for supplemental health benefits in Brazil The outlook for the health care industry in Brazil is turbulent. This article describes the challenges companies are facing there to control health care costs that are rising faster than inflation and suggests what they can do to reverse this trend.
Findings from Mercer's employee choice (flex benefit) survey Survey conducted in 47 countries to measure the benefit programs offered across the choice spectrum. This summary provides current information on health benefit programs and practices that vary considerably from one country to the next.
Salary sacrifice in the UK
A new scenario for health insurance in Argentina
Phased retirement: A new solution for aging workforce in Europe?
This next article in our series on cost containment describes how cost management has now come back into vogue for employers in Canada, despite the benefits provided by country’s Medicare system.
Reforming US health care – Global insights on viable solutions What the US can learn from other countries health care systems as it gears up to get its own passed before the end of the year.
Chinese health care reform: An overview Health care reform in China is due to launch in early April next year. This overview compares health care in China to other countries, lays out the challenges and provides a future outlook.
Cost containment of health plans in Europe This article compares cost cutting in Europe with the US and outlines some of the actions companies are taking. It also paints a picture of what more comprehensive health plans in Europe might look like in the future.
Mental health: A priority for Canada’s employers Improving employees’ mental well-being is all the more necessary at a time of rising costs and grim statistics.
Conclusions and thoughts on the key discussion topics at the 2009 conference, including: governance, multinational pooling, M&A and flexible benefits.
A look at the current environment for comprehensive health care reform in the US: its components, costs and recent federal activity.
Aging workforces: The inevitable challenge in Europe An examination of the economic impact of population aging with a particular focus on the Netherlands.
Contain health care costs during the downturn Mercer's experience in Asia: Viewing the current recession as a window of opportunity for creating long-term financial stability.
A summary of the key elements of the recent reform and its implications for the near future.
Flexible benefits: Can you afford not to offer them? It is especially important in the current economic climate for employers to review their spending on employee rewards and to consider whether a greater return could be achieved by allocating that amount differently. While written from a European perspective, this article's conclusion that employers should provide flexibility or flexible benefit for their employees applies across geographies.
Absence management in Canada and the US: Leveraging advantages across borders Comparing how absences are managed between the United States and Canada is not easy. This article provides a view of the similarities and differences in the two countries’ employers and group disability carriers' approaches to managing absences.
Managing employee health in Asia In many Asian countries, rising infectious disease rates, unhealthy lifestyle habits brought by economic growth and commonplace road accidents mix to create a concoction of health care headaches for employers. This article describes the differences among countries, the importance of understanding cost drivers, and how to manage costs by developing employee health care strategies.
Managing company health care plans in Latin America The real challenge to managing employee health care across Latin America comes from the diversity of health care delivery and financing across countries. This article provides guidance on how best to implement a multinational health benefits strategy across the region.
Managing health care benefit expense in today’s unprecedented economic times This article focuses on the health care challenges the economy is putting on employers and employees in the US. The impact of the financial crisis on human capital, benefits and investments in other geographies can be found at www.mercer.com/unprecedentedtimes
Flexible benefits: Can you afford not to offer them? It is especially important in the current economic climate for employers to review their spending on employee rewards and to consider whether a greater return could be achieved by allocating that amount differently. While written from a European perspective, this article's conclusion that employers should provide flexibility or flexible benefit for their employees applies across geographies.
Is spending on health & benefits a good investment? Mercer’s 2008 Pan-European health and benefits survey provides unique insights into the challenges employers are facing and what they believe to be their priorities across countries with a diverse spread of economic, social and historical backgrounds.
Healthcare planning for an aging world Excerpted from Mercer’s Perspective related to the recent World Economic Forum report (visit our site www.mercer.com/wef this article tracks the possible impacts of the macro forces identified in the report and outlines some initial stakeholder responses
Global health management: Discovering value and savings Throughout the world, leaders of multinational companies – and their shareholders – are becoming increasingly concerned about rising health care costs and their impact on their companies’ future fortunes. This article identifies the key drivers of strategic global health care and describes how multinationals can develop and implement global health care programs.
Recognizing the value of flex in Asia Asia’s businesses are recognizing the value of flex as an attraction and retention tool to help in the war for talent as well as a cost-containment solution. This article explains how flex works, highlights the results of flex surveys conducted by Mercer in China and Singapore, and provides a case study.
Employee benefit plans – Why manage globally? Multinational companies often struggle to find the time to effectively manage the plethora of insured employee benefit plans that they have around the world. This article argues for taking a more centralized approach to the management of insured employee benefits and better leveraging the network of brokers and consultants through the consolidation of providers.
Topic-based archives
Health Management“Glocal health”: Global strategy, local programs Leveraging insights and data at headquarters to develop internal competencies and a foundation for global health management. Multinational employers are increasingly seeking to develop health strategies that balance global economies of scale with locally relevant elements.
The growing demand for health benefits in Europe In Europe, health care is on everyone’s mind these days. Government programs are facing budget deficits, employers are rethinking benefit and compensation programs against the backdrop of the economic recession, and employees are worried about access to service and the quality of coverage.
Optimizing your benefits investment in Asia Currently at the forefront of global economic expansion, companies in many Asian countries are increasingly facing challenges attracting and retaining the talent needed to sustain their present level of growth. In most of Asia, companies have traditionally differentiated themselves on the basis of salary, job title and perceived prestige of the employer brand. However, there is a pressing need for many organizations to evolve a broader value proposition for employees by leveraging the value of non-salary compensation, most notably employee benefits. This article presents four related strategies for attracting, retaining and engaging employees.
Creating an optimal and sustainable workforce In the next few decades, Dutch employers will face a very tight labor market, with the workforce projected to shrink due to the aging population. This article describes how employers can develop programs and other solutions that will help them identify and prevent workforce shortages and inefficiencies in the coming years, as well as ways to increase productivity and innovation.
Spotlight on Brazil: he role of health management in attracting and retaining employees A key challenge for employers in Brazil is to manage employment costs while keeping a sharp focus on resources, skills, and attracting and retaining talent. Companies with good benefits practices are continuing to invest in health management.
As the world’s largest businesses become increasingly global, employer-employee relationships are evolving fast. But one factor remains constant: Employee well-being affects productivity, morale, and the ability to attract and retain workers. This article explores how employers can promote employee health and well-being across cultures with diverse needs.
More centralized benefit management for Latin American multinationals Regional benefit strategies with a more centralized approach are highly recommended and are becoming a noticeable trend, mainly for multinational companies. This article describes six typical company concerns and what can be done to address them.
Health management and absence management in Europe The region is out of step in terms of educating employees about health risks and ways to improve their health. This article provides an overview of current practices, innovation, and major health and absence management challenges facing companies throughout Europe.
Redefining the health benefits market in India The health insurance sector is currently going through an upheaval in India. This article explores how organizations may be able to change health care cost and utilization trends.
Medicaid, the largest health care benefit program in the United States, provides health care coverage to qualifying low-income individuals and families along with the elderly and disabled. With tax revenues falling sharply and the number of applications for Medicaid benefits hitting an all-time high, the Medicaid glass is broken.
Absence management in Canada and the US: Leveraging advantages across borders Comparing how absences are managed between the United States and Canada is not easy. This article provides a view of the similarities and differences in the two countries’ employers and group disability carriers' approaches to managing absences.
In many Asian countries, rising infectious disease rates, unhealthy lifestyle habits brought by economic growth and commonplace road accidents mix to create a concoction of health care headaches for employers. This article describes the differences among countries, the importance of understanding cost drivers, and how to manage costs by developing employee health care strategies.
The real challenge to managing employee health care across Latin America comes from the diversity of health care delivery and financing across countries. This article provides guidance on how best to implement a multinational health benefits strategy across the region.
Global health management: Discovering value and savings Throughout the world, leaders of multinational companies – and their shareholders – are becoming increasingly concerned about rising health care costs and their impact on their companies’ future fortunes. This article identifies the key drivers of strategic global health care and describes how multinationals can develop and implement global health care programs.
Is spending on health & benefits a good investment? Mercer’s 2008 Pan-European health and benefits survey provides unique insights into the challenges employers are facing and what they believe to be their priorities across countries with a diverse spread of economic, social and historical backgrounds.
Mental health: A priority for Canada’s employers Improving employees’ mental well-being is all the more necessary at a time of rising costs and grim statistics. Total Rewards & Flexible BenefitsRethinking employee-paid benefits Flexible and voluntary benefit programs are helping employers continue to provide the benefits their employees want, while simultaneously controlling costs. The drivers behind these programs differ in the US and the UK, but several common employer requisites are created. This article describes the approaches taken in both countries and provides models that may be applied to other markets.
Health care reform is a key initiative for many countries in Europe. Although the mixture of funding and delivery models varies, each country faces similar cost pressures in its national health program. Governments are trying to reduce their exposure to health care funding by “cost shifting” the burden to employers and individuals. Organizations need to know how this will affect them and their employees and what measures they can take to manage this risk.
Optimizing your benefits investment in Asia Currently at the forefront of global economic expansion, companies in many Asian countries are increasingly facing challenges attracting and retaining the talent needed to sustain their present level of growth. In most of Asia, companies have traditionally differentiated themselves on the basis of salary, job title and perceived prestige of the employer brand. However, there is a pressing need for many organizations to evolve a broader value proposition for employees by leveraging the value of non-salary compensation, most notably employee benefits. This article presents four related strategies for attracting, retaining and engaging employees.
Creating an optimal and sustainable workforce In the next few decades, Dutch employers will face a very tight labor market, with the workforce projected to shrink due to the aging population. This article describes how employers can develop programs and other solutions that will help them identify and prevent workforce shortages and inefficiencies in the coming years, as well as ways to increase productivity and innovation.
Intensive care for supplemental health benefits in Brazil The outlook for the health care industry in Brazil is turbulent. This article describes the challenges companies are facing there to control health care costs that are rising faster than inflation and suggests what they can do to reverse this trend.
Flexible benefits: Can you afford not to offer them? It is especially important in the current economic climate for employers to review their spending on employee rewards and to consider whether a greater return could be achieved by allocating that amount differently. While written from a European perspective, this article's conclusion that employers should provide flexibility or flexible benefit for their employees applies across geographies.
Recognizing the value of flex in Asia Asia’s businesses are recognizing the value of flex as an attraction and retention tool to help in the war for talent as well as a cost-containment solution. This article explains how flex works, highlights the results of flex surveys conducted by Mercer in China and Singapore, and provides a case study.
Flexible benefits: Increasing the perceived value of the total benefit What’s driving this strategy in Latin America and many emerging economies are some of the same issues that drove flex in the US – demographic change, untenable cost inflation and shifting values. This article defines flexible benefits, explains their resurgence, compares them to a total rewards structure and describes how Latin American countries are using flex and why it is popular in emerging economies.
Findings from Mercer's employee choice (flex benefit) survey Global strategiesInformed decisions enable intelligent medical cost control Database analysis can serve a lot of purposes, and with a little thinking outside the box, it can provide invaluable insight and help companies identify areas of potential cost savings. Employee health benefits are a particular area where everyone is looking to save money. Keeping benefit plan costs low while still offering employees value requires doing statistical and actuarial data analysis related to employees’ medical claims and using this information to intelligently design plans to better deliver against their objectives.
“Glocal health”: Global strategy, local programs Leveraging insights and data at headquarters to develop internal competencies and a foundation for global health management. Multinational employers are increasingly seeking to develop health strategies that balance global economies of scale with locally relevant elements.
Benefit coverage for local subsidiaries: A simple, cost-effective approach When implementing a global benefits project, multinationals often find that countries with the fewest employees have the greatest challenges sourcing competitive benefits at competitive rates and ensuring a good level of service. This article describes an approach that addresses these issues.
As the world’s largest businesses become increasingly global, employer-employee relationships are evolving fast. But one factor remains constant: Employee well-being affects productivity, morale, and the ability to attract and retain workers. This article explores how employers can promote employee health and well-being across cultures with diverse needs.
Global health management: Discovering value and savings Throughout the world, leaders of multinational companies – and their shareholders – are becoming increasingly concerned about rising health care costs and their impact on their companies’ future fortunes. This article identifies the key drivers of strategic global health care and describes how multinationals can develop and implement global health care programs.
Employee benefit plans – Why manage globally? Multinational companies often struggle to find the time to effectively manage the plethora of insured employee benefit plans that they have around the world. This article argues for taking a more centralized approach to the management of insured employee benefits and better leveraging the network of brokers and consultants through the consolidation of providers.
Conclusions and thoughts on the key discussion topics at the 2009 conference, including: governance, multinational pooling, M&A and flexible benefits. Financial and compliance riskInformed decisions enable intelligent medical cost control Database analysis can serve a lot of purposes, and with a little thinking outside the box, it can provide invaluable insight and help companies identify areas of potential cost savings. Employee health benefits are a particular area where everyone is looking to save money. Keeping benefit plan costs low while still offering employees value requires doing statistical and actuarial data analysis related to employees’ medical claims and using this information to intelligently design plans to better deliver against their objectives.
Benefit coverage for local subsidiaries: A simple, cost-effective approach When implementing a global benefits project, multinationals often find that countries with the fewest employees have the greatest challenges sourcing competitive benefits at competitive rates and ensuring a good level of service. This article describes an approach that addresses these issues.
Leveraging regional benefits management in Asia Despite Asia’s economic rebound, employee engagement levels and morale have not grown at the same rate. Regional Benefits Management (RBM) in Asia is an effective way to leverage a firm’s regional economies of scale, optimize current employee benefits spend, achieve cost savings, and provide a cost-effective means of competitive differentiation.
Contain health care costs during the downturn Mercer's experience in Asia: Viewing the current recession as a window of opportunity for creating long-term financial stability
Managing health care benefit expense in today’s challenging economic times This article focuses on the health care challenges the economy is putting on employers and employees in the US. The impact of the financial crisis on human capital, benefits and investments in other geographies can be found at www.mercer.com/unprecedentedtimes.
Cost containment of health plans in Europe This article compares cost cutting in Europe with the US and outlines some of the actions companies are taking. It also paints a picture of what more comprehensive health plans in Europe might look like in the future.
Cost containment in Canada Health care reformThe growing demand for health benefits in Europe In Europe, health care is on everyone’s mind these days. Government programs are facing budget deficits, employers are rethinking benefit and compensation programs against the backdrop of the economic recession, and employees are worried about access to service and the quality of coverage.
Emerging challenges ... and opportunities ... in the US A new year always brings with it new possibilities, but the fear of the “unknown” can also cause worry. After last year’s tumultuous road to get the health reform ball rolling, many employers are now wondering what lies ahead and how they will manage soaring health care costs and comply with a dizzying array of new requirements while maintaining the value of employee benefits.
The battle for US health reform The lack of consensus means that reform, as legislation and law, will continue to be a volatile issue. Read why this has proved to be such a challenge and what companies with employees in the US should be doing in the meantime.
Massachusetts Health Reform: model for a nation? The Massachusetts Health Care Reform Law was an innovative experiment that extended health insurance to thousands of uninsured residents. Which elements of the Massachusetts reform could be applied to the nation as a whole and which should not?
A look at the current environment for comprehensive health care reform in the US: its components, costs and recent federal activity.
A summary of the key elements of the recent reform and its implications for the near future.
Reforming US health care – Global insights on viable solutions What the US can learn from other countries health care systems as it gears up to get its own passed before the end of the year.
Chinese health care reform: An overview Health care reform in China is due to launch in early April next year. This overview compares health care in China to other countries, lays out the challenges and provides a future outlook.
A new scenario for health insurance in Argentina Retirement issuesHealthcare planning for an aging world Excerpted from Mercer’s Perspective related to the recent World Economic Forum report (visit our site www.mercer.com/wef ), this article tracks the possible impacts of the macro forces identified in the report and outlines some initial stakeholder responses.
Aging workforces: The inevitable challenge in Europe An examination of the economic impact of population aging with a particular focus on the Netherlands.
Pension salary sacrifice may not only lead to a win-win for employers and employees, but may also serve as a stepping stone to the implementation of other flexible benefits.
Phased retirement: A new solution for aging workforce in Europe? This article examines a potential strategy that may help employers continue to attract and retain the skills and services of their maturing workforce by allowing these employees to “phase” into retirement.
Geography-based archives
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