Health benefits shouldn’t feel like a second job. We sat down with Marshall Darr, CEO of StretchDollar, to unpack a simpler model for small teams: employers set a monthly budget and employees pick and own the plans that fit their lives. Instead of wrestling with group plans built for big HR departments, you move funding to the individual ACA market where coverage is guaranteed, networks are local, and the choices actually match real needs.
Marshall explains why small-group plans have become so pricey—healthy companies leaving the risk pool, fewer carriers in the space—and how ICHRA (Individual Coverage HRA) flips the script. The result is practical: a team in different cities can each choose the right plan from carriers like Blue Cross, Aetna, or Kaiser while the owner controls cost with pre-tax dollars. With licensed brokers acting as fiduciaries, employees aren’t left to fend for themselves; they get clear, human guidance to avoid pitfalls like ultra-high deductibles or uncovered medications.
We share tangible wins, including a type 1 diabetic whose weekly insulin costs dropped from $1,300 out of pocket to a $30 copay by switching to an individual plan that actually covered her meds. We also dig into the nuts and bolts—how setup takes minutes, why admin time can shrink by 100 hours a year, and when it makes sense to stick with a good group renewal. If you’re growing toward 50 employees, we cover options for transitioning without losing momentum.
If you’re a one to fifty-employee business in the rent-to-own world or beyond, and you’ve felt stuck between “too expensive” and “not enough,” this conversation offers a clear path forward: cash, choice, and coverage that works. Subscribe, share with a fellow owner, and leave a review to help more small teams find a better way to do benefits.
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