League reinvents health insurance for small business owners and employees

League is not exactly your father’s health insurance coverage. This Canadian startup with U.S. expansion plans is geared toward millennials with a unique digital-first approach to buying and using health coverage.

Read more: 5 mistakes to avoid when enrolling in benefits at work

Introducing League

League’s target audience is small businesses that don’t currently offer any health insurance benefits to their employees. The company’s platform lets employers know exactly what they’ll have to pay for health care benefits. That certainty is guaranteed because employers only pay for what gets used within a year once the plan’s limitations are set.

For workers, they can build their own ‘league’ of in-network providers from a pool of thousands of potential health care providers, hence the service’s name. But the real edge of League is in its fresh rethink of benefits.

The health and wellness portfolio offered is geared toward millennials. So you have non-traditional things like boot camp, acupuncture, personal trainers and coverage if you get sick during vacation being offered—alongside the usuals stodgy old suspects like dentist visits, glasses, medications.

And here’s a bonus: There’s no paperwork and employees access benefits from the League app. They also pay their premiums via the League digital wallet. So this is a great option that lets small businesses manage the on boarding of employees in a cost-effective way.

Reuters reports League plans to expand its insurance offering to select U.S. states over the course of the next six months.

A bigger question

However, a bigger philosophical question looms: Should employers even have to offer insurance?

Clark says no.

‘If I were your emperor, I would remove employers and government as health care insurers. Because even before Obamacare, we had roughly half the population getting coverage through the government, while roughly the other half gets coverage through employers. Those who are uninsured are entrepreneurs and small business owners, typically,’ the consumer champ says.

‘We need to decouple employers and government as health care providers and put the individual in charge of the health care buying process. You want to see health care costs go down? That will do it.’

Read more: 4 insurance startups that will change the way you shop for insurance

The dos and don’ts of medical lab work