January 2005. The all-inclusive flat setup price of $150 will be discounted to $90 for members of participating business associations. This pricing also extends the other most popular small business benefit plans like group Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRA), Health Savings Accounts (HSA), and self-directed 401(k) plans. This service includes initial planning consultation, benefit plan design, plan documents, employee enrollment communications, integration with payroll systems, and handling all set-up questions from the employer and individual employees.

My response has always been the same; there is really no advantage to the members and usually quite a bit of shady salesmanship involved in promoting these programs. I did not want to be involved”. That will all be changed with the new benefits program. Rather than promote a fictitious advantage in health insurance plans, the Freedom Benefits programs offer sophisticated employee benefit plans to small firms that save money and allow employees to select the insurance of their choice or even benefit by selecting no insurance at all.

Novak, like most employee benefits experts, sees no advantage or benefit to the approach as proposed by the President. “We need to develop an approach that really works with tangible value and meaningful savings to the members.” Novak is an employee benefits writer and a small business adviser for over 20 years. The new association plan makes tax-advantaged state-of-the-art benefit plans available to every small business for less than $100 flat fee. At this price, Novak says, almost every small business will recoup the setup cost in savings within the first couple of months.