How leading the ICHRA conversation opens doors, deepens relationships, and expands your book of business
By Lauren Sweda
Recently, I joined Brad Rocque, vice president of enterprise accounts, E&I at eHealth, and Lisa Collins, co-founder and partner at WCK Health Group, to discuss how brokers can strategically leverage ICHRA to help clients navigate rising healthcare costs, improve affordability, and manage the uncertainty of an evolving health insurance market.
Brokers representing regional and national firms across 19 states tuned in to our webinar to learn how to incorporate ICHRA into the conversation with their clients, and a clear theme emerged: For brokers, the question is no longer whether ICHRA belongs in the market. The true differentiator is whether you are using it to create better conversations with employers before someone else does.
The group benefits market has reached a pressure point
Traditional group health plans carry more pressure than many employers can absorb. Premiums, employee contributions, and renewal volatility are competing directly with wages, hiring plans, and operating budgets. Employers feel it. Employees feel it. At the same time, the individual market has matured. More carriers are investing in off-exchange products, plan designs are becoming more intentional, and employers are starting to see ICHRA not as a workaround, but as a defined-contribution benefits strategy with real staying power. At Nexben, we’ve seen that the market has already moved from the mindset of, “What is ICHRA?” to “Who is going to own the ICHRA strategy?” This is the opportunity brokers should be racing to claim.
Broker tip: If your clients are already worried about their upcoming renewal, the key is to emphasize that they have options.
ICHRAs help brokers shift from vendor to strategic advisor
A recurring theme I hear from HR leaders is simple and telling. It usually goes something like this: “My broker is not bringing me alternative options.” That should stop every broker in their tracks.
Employers are crying out for advocacy. They want someone who understands the gravity of their financial pressures and brings forward credible alternatives. Even when ICHRA is not the final recommendation, the act of evaluating it changes the dynamic of the relationship between you and your clients; suddenly, you move from vendor to advisor. At Nexben, we have seen brokers win broker of record simply because they were willing to have the conversation others avoided. The value is not only in placement, but in demonstrating strategic intent before renewal pressure forces the issue.
Broker tip: Even if an ICHRA is not the right fit, getting into the simple habit of helping your clients explore their options through alternative funding strategies proves your value as a strategic advisor, giving you a competitive edge over others that are undoubtedly targeting your clients.
Change the entry point: Bring the CFO into the conversation
One of the most powerful tactical shifts a broker can make is changing the first stakeholder in the conversation. ICHRA gives you a business reason to walk into the CFO’s office, not just the HR director’s. The financial case is direct: predictable contribution strategy, reduced exposure to renewal volatility, and a clearer way to budget benefits as the workforce evolves.
The questions that resonate at the finance level are not complicated:
- What happens if renewal increases continue for the next 2-5 years?
- How are you forecasting volatility?
- How will benefits scale if your workforce grows across regions?
Broker tip: Brokers are opening doors to conversations with stakeholders that they weren’t able to reach before. Being armed with ICHRA strategies that empower you to go directly to the CFO positions you as a long-term strategic partner rather than a renewal messenger.
The objections are real, but completely manageable
In our conversations with brokers, there’s no shortage of objections that are worth consideration and conversation. Here are five common misnomers about ICHRA and how you can overcome them:
- “ICHRA is too complicated.” The first year requires thoughtful change management, employee education, and the right administrative partner. But after implementation, many of the pain points and time-consuming tasks associated with traditional group coverage fade: carrier renewals, plan design negotiations, network disruption, market checks, and the employee disruption that often follows. I would encourage you to ask yourself and your clients, where and how this time can be reinvested back into your business and your employees.
- “Employees will not understand it.” Employees already make individual purchasing decisions across many areas of their lives. What they need is not a thicker benefits packet. They need decision support, clear plan guidance, and human enrollment help. With the right administrator, the experience can feel personal, supported, and empowered.
- “ICHRA only works for small groups.” That may have been the early perception, but it is not where the market is today. With the right administrator, ICHRA can scale across all company sizes and is especially relevant for distributed and multi-state workforces, where employees often need local network options that a single group plan cannot easily deliver. We are seeing a tremendous shift in the employer profile considering ICHRA, with most averaging between 100-300 lives, and many with thousands of employees that are facing double-digit renewals.
- “I will lose revenue by selling ICHRA.” The brokers leaning into ICHRA are not shrinking their opportunity. They are expanding it through advisory fees, carrier commissions, and ancillary strategies that complement the shift to plan designs available in the off-exchange market.
- “ICHRA is all or nothing.” Not every employer is ready for a full replacement strategy. That’s not a problem; as ICHRAs can be strategically offered where the value proposition is a win-win for both the employer and employees. At Nexben, our employees in Michigan are on a traditional group plan, while our out-of-state employees are offered an ICHRA. This “slicing strategy” has helped us optimize savings for the organization, bring better rate optionality to employees that are not in MI, and best of all, it’s enabled us to perfect the experience for clients.
Broker tip: For larger clients, ICHRA may be a complement before it becomes a replacement. A feasibility analysis can reveal whether the best path is a full transition, a class-based slice, or the status quo for now. Your strategic win is starting the conversation, documenting the economics, and creating a roadmap for your clients that can evolve as the individual market continues to mature.
The timing favors brokers who move first
At a time when sticker shock is a reality for the vast majority of employers receiving their benefit renewal packages, brokers should begin to incorporate ICHRA into the conversation. Rather than positioning ICHRA as a silver bullet or product pitch, brokers can show how this increasingly popular, alternative model is a disciplined way to help employers understand their options and prove that you are their number one advocate.