Are U.S. health benefit questions too localized?

Question

Are questions related to benefits in the U.S. too localized? For example:

1. Why do employers typically offer health plan x vs. y?
2. How can I convince my employer to offer health plan z?

Answer 1

First, don't get too hung up on location for the too localized close reason, as it's not about location. In fact, this is why that close reason has been removed from the list. Too localized is more about how many people would be likely to have the same problem as you, and when you measure the number of people in millions, it's not too localized.

The first question is actually more broad and overly speculative than localized. It's the exact opposite. Employers do things for a wide variety of reasons that are not publicly available knowledge, and this doesn't seem like something that can be answered without opinion only. There's also no problem to be solved here, and the best questions tend to be about a problem you're facing.

Instead of speculation, let's get to the heart of the matter. Why do you want to know why employers offer X vs Y? Why is that a problem for you? Tell us about that problem. Include details about the problem so that we have plenty of context to be helpful, and try to be as objective in your post as possible.

The second question sounds more like a problem you're facing and could fall under workplace negotiations. Make sure you include information about the situation to help others get context.

Finally, motivation does play a role. If your question is about the benefit itself, such as: "Why doesn't Kaiser Permanente have hours on Sunday?" then it's off topic. Make sure the question is about US health benefits as it applies to the workplace.

This isn't a guarantee the post won't be put on hold. If it is, use the comments and chat as tools to help edit and improve the post so that it might be reopened.

For example questions about benefits, see the benefits tag.