Health Insurance

Why your employees avoid healthcare (and how to fix it)

Read Time

5 Minutes

Written by

Team Curative

Published

Dec 2, 2025

We all know the truth: traditional insurance models discourage the kind of care that actually saves your organization and your employees. We're talking about money savings, of course, but also a boost in productivity, well-being, and your company's overall performance.

After all, we all know that well-being impacts how your people show up. Research says that higher employee well-being equals higher productivity, loyalty, and profitability.

But, here's the problem: traditional plans hinder preventive visits, create cost barriers, and fail to engage employees.

We know all about these challenges — and we’ve developed a strategic framework so you can pick health plans that actually benefit you and your employees.

Long-term cost controls and long-term well-being? That's a win-win.

The problem? Traditional benefits create the problem they're trying to solve.

In many cases, traditional benefit offerings are prohibitive to people getting any care, let alone primary care. This means employer-sponsored healthcare plans are underutilized, while costs are still shifted back to the employee. It perpetuates a vicious cycle. Here's what's happening: Your benefits leaders are so used to managing costs with deductibles and copays that they're forgetting about what that costs in the long term. When your people can't afford to see a doctor for small stuff, they end up needing way more expensive treatment later. That’s no good for anyone.

What the healthcare industry thinks: Employees just don't want to engage.

What's really happening: The system makes engagement difficult and expensive, so employees say “why bother.”

So what have companies done? They’ve gone with a cost-shifting strategy, where they pass expenses to their employees through higher deductibles and copays. The plans themselves are reactive, not proactive: They wait for employees to get sick instead of preventing illnesses.

Financial barriers usually keep employees from getting care when they need it most, and they can’t be productive at work if they’re worrying over costs or skipping appointments. You can cut back on that stress by choosing transparent, innovative, and progressive plans.

A preventive approach to health care cuts employees’ medical debt down the road, which means they can save money and focus on their work.

A smiling Asian woman patient sitting with a female doctor in the examination room

Make healthcare an investment, not an expense

Instead of treating healthcare like an expense you're trying to minimize, what if you treated it like an investment in your people?

In a preventive investment model, plans focus on building trust with employees through a baseline visit to learn about their current concerns, identify any emerging issues, and connect them with a care team that addresses their specific needs.

A baseline visit, combined with a no-deductible, no-copay plan that eliminates any cost barriers, is the reason why Curative has a 98% engagement rate. It’s not just happening so doctors get medical info from employees: we’re creating value out of the health plan that they’re paying for. For HR leaders, selecting a comprehensive, cost-effective, and straightforward healthcare plan requires more than just checking the price tag.

Engagement is an important metric for real ROI on your healthcare investment. When employees don't feel like their insurance is just a series of transactions, they actually engage — and your organization sees the benefits.

The FACE Framework: How to transform your healthcare approach

Let’s break down how a zero-deductible, zero-copay plan with baseline visits can completely change employee engagement:

F - From fear to faith

A traditional health plan capitalizes on your employees' fear of healthcare — spooky, right? But with no barriers to care, and clear value to their health, Curative sees 98% plan engagement.

A - After-the-fact to anticipatory

Many health crises and illnesses can be treated more effectively if they’re caught earlier. That's why preventive, proactive care is so important. When you identify and take care of problems right away, it's better for overall health and your bottom line.

C - Cost to strategic capital

Under a nontraditional insurance plan, healthcare changes from an expense to an investment in your workforce's productivity, well-being, and organizational performance.

E - Elements to ecosystem

Most health plans have engagement issues because every piece of the puzzle is disconnected. Better plans offer comprehensive care, rather than leaving people to figure it out on their own.

5 tips to creating a healthcare plan that employees engage with

If you want engaged employees, here's what you need to keep in mind.

Cut out the friction. Traditional healthcare is a nightmare to navigate, so people avoid it until little problems become huge issues. Don't shift costs to your employees through higher out-of-pocket expenses. Just make getting care easier.
Build real relationships. Pick a plan that doesn't revolve around isolated transactions. You want an ongoing partnership built on trust, because when providers understand their patients’ needs and history, those patients keep coming back.
Stop thinking of healthcare as just a cost. It’s an investment in your people that pays off. Better retention, happier employees — when you offer stuff like health coaching, on-site clinics, or direct access to good specialists, your team knows you've got their back, and they'll actually use their benefits.
Think bigger than Band-Aids. You can't just add a wellness app to your existing offerings and call it a day. To offer benefits that your employees truly want, you need a unified, comprehensive system.
Look at the long game. Prevention is an upfront investment, but it pays off big time. When people get care early, they’re healthier in the long term. Just wait a minute, and you’ll see the savings kick in.

The question isn't whether your organization can afford to invest in better healthcare benefits. It's whether you can afford not to.