On this episode of The Ty Brady Way, Ty sits down with Dan Dearden, a 25-year veteran of the group health insurance industry who has spent his career helping small and mid-sized businesses navigate one of their biggest frustrations: the relentless, compounding cost of group health coverage. Dan lays out the landscape employers are dealing with right now. Hyperinflation in healthcare is running in the double digits with no slowdown projected for at least three to five years. Employers are capping employee hours to stay under the 50-employee mandate threshold, offering plans with $6,000 to $8,000 deductibles while still paying enormous premiums, and in some cases simply paying the government penalty because it costs less than the insurance itself. Trent Staggs, traveling the country talking to business owners, heard the same answer almost unanimously: the cost of health insurance is the number one problem in business today. Dan explains why so many employers stay stuck, and why the traditional brokerage model is part of the problem rather than the solution. Then he walks through the alternative his firm Spica Employee Benefits is most committed to: Pareto Health, the largest employer captive in the country with nearly 4,500 member companies. The model pools smaller employers together to create the same buying power as a Fortune 500 company, driving down the cost of medical procedures, surgeries, and prescription drugs while actually improving the quality of care. Dan shares that a top-ranked orthopedic surgeon in Bountiful, Utah performing robotic knee surgery can cost half of what a lesser surgeon down the street charges, and that steering employees toward the best providers in every category means better outcomes and lower total cost. His firm’s goal is to get employers from 100% of their current fully insured cost down to around 80%, and often better, with one local Utah company saving $109,000 in their first year on 65 employees. Dan closes with the wellness piece, sharing his own story of dropping his A1C from 5.9 to 4.1 through coaching, dietary changes, and targeted supplements, going from nearly being put on diabetes medication to his doctor calling him in disbelief. His message is that a culture of proactive health is just as important as the financial structure of the plan, and that a lot of expensive medical interventions are avoidable with the right support. For any employer with 50 or more employees who thinks they are already getting the best deal possible, Dan’s ask is simple: give his team 30 minutes. His parting wisdom for anyone building a career mirrors that same straightforward approach: work hard, become the subject matter expert in your field, and never stop investing in the people around you.   🎙️ @thetybradyway with @dan_dearden   As always, we would like to hear from you! 📧 Email us at [email protected] 📱 DM us on Instagram @thetybradyway