This month marks a major milestone for the UCDA Health & Dental Plan: its 20th anniversary.
Two decades ago, our founder, Bob Beattie, recognized that Ontario’s independent dealers needed a stable, affordable way to support the health and wellbeing of their employees.
The program he commissioned has since grown into one of the most reliable benefit plans in the industry, and its mission today is the same as it was on day one: help dealers attract talent, keep great employees, and offer meaningful support without being crushed by unpredictable insurance costs.
Anyone who has ever employed staff understands how difficult it is to find and keep good people. Some employees become long-term pillars of a dealership, helping it grow year after year. Others view their job as temporary and are always on the lookout for the next opportunity.
A strong benefits plan is more than a perk – it’s one of the most effective ways to retain the people you want to keep. Offering health and dental coverage signals stability, professionalism, and care for your team. In a competitive labour market, it can make the difference between losing a valued employee and keeping them for the long haul.
The challenge, however, is that traditional benefit plans come with a major drawback: you never know what they’re going to cost in the future. Insurance companies provide attractive introductory rates that last for 12 to 15 months. After that initial period, everything depends on your renewal report. If your employees had high claims – or if inflation pushed medical and dental costs upward – the new monthly premium can jump sharply. It’s not unusual to see substantial increases year after year.
This puts many dealerships in a tough position. Employees begin to rely on their benefits, and removing or reducing coverage is deeply unpopular. Yet switching insurance providers every year is disruptive, and it often results in changes to coverage levels, new rules, and administrative headaches. Many small dealers found themselves trapped in this cycle, facing annual increases of 20% or even 30% and losing access to certain types of coverage that larger employers could offer.
This is exactly why Bob Beattie pushed for a UCDA-sponsored plan. He understood that individual dealerships – especially smaller, family-run operations – did not have the bargaining power to secure predictable rates. By pooling hundreds of dealers together, the UCDA could stabilize premiums, broaden available coverage and shield members from the volatility of the standard insurance market.
Twenty years later, the results speak for themselves. The UCDA Health & Dental Plan has earned a reputation for stability and fairness. Unlike the wider Ontario insurance market, where double-digit increases are the norm, our plan has never once issued a double-digit rate increase. The highest increase we have ever had was 8%. This December saw only a 1% increase and the year before that, there was no increase at all. For many members, this consistency has been the single most valuable feature of the program – allowing them to plan, budget, and maintain steady support for their employees without unpleasant surprises.
Another achievement we are particularly proud of is our expanded mental-health coverage. The need for accessible counselling services has grown dramatically in recent years, and we listened. Previously, our plan offered $500 per year for psychological counselling. This year, we increased that amount to $2,500 – one of the highest levels of mental-health insurance available in Ontario. We are not aware of any comparable plan in the province that matches this benefit, especially at our pricing level.
The UCDA has also modernized the way members access and manage their benefits. Claims can be submitted directly at the pharmacy or dentist using electronic systems, and members can use our NexMobile smartphone app for quick claim submission, digital ID cards, and plan details. Technology continues to evolve, and so do we. Further improvements are coming with plans for a new member app, presently in development.
As we enter the 20th anniversary of the UCDA Health & Dental Plan, we are proud of how far the program has come – and even more excited about what’s ahead. The goal has always been simple: protect our members, support their employees, and bring stability to an area where uncertainty used to be the norm. We look forward to continuing that mission for many years to come.
The UCDA is here to support your health and benefits needs.
For more information on the UCDA Health & Dental Plan, visit our website at https://www.ucdaemployeebenefits.com/ or call us anytime at 1-866-476-8722.