The legislation has changed since 2010 in USA and getting health insurance became mandatory. For this reason getting business health insurance becomes desirable for any employee as it decreases the payments per month.
In fact those payments have already become obligatory for him. If huge corporations solve this problem easily, the enterprises of small business are not always ready to spend some part of their funds on it. Let’s consider, if this step is reasonable and profitable.
A Few Words on the Subject
Business insurance belongs to group insurance plans. It is issued on a group of colleagues of a certain enterprise. As a rule, a group insurance is less expensive, than an individual one as it presumes discounts from 5 to 15% (depends on the number of the insured persons). This policy has the number of pluses and minuses. The workers of small enterprises are more sensitive to the weak points of business health insurance. It is worth buying or not? Let’s think!
Basic Ideas of Small Business Health Insurance
The enterprise you work at is considered small if there are from 1 to 20 employees there. If one day some of you initiate getting small business health insurance, first of all read the state laws. The minimal amount of people in group insurance is limited in many states. Thus, if you have 50 employees at your company, at least 85% of them should be ready to participate in health business insurance to have the permission to buy group policy. Very often some workers are already included in health insurance policies (if they have already bought family policy or an individual one) and don’t want to take part in that one at their workplace. If you won’t get enough number of participants, you won’t be able to purchase the policy.
Most part of business insurance policies are signed without passing medical tests. It is possible to sign a contract during a month or so. Each member of the business group must prepare package of documents during 30 days. Thus you can avoid medical tests. If the contract is not signed in time you will need medical tests to get the insurance.
You must be busy a whole day at work if you want to become the part of the group there. The amount of coverage is not determined individually. It is defined in the contract, signed by the insurance company and your employer. It is about $40,000 per year. The whole insurance premium is paid by the employer but a part of it is covered by his workers. Usually the amount is taken from their paychecks.
These are the main principles of work of health business insurance.
Advantages of Small Business Health Insurance
The price is that very prize, which every worker has from its deal. If you are a member of a group, you can be happy to save a great amount of dollars. If you have a family, every member of it can be added to the policy that is bought by your employer. Nowadays cost of medicine becomes higher all the time and this kind of insurance gets popular because of its price.
The other positive side of getting business health insurance is the absence of medical tests. If you get and individual policy, you will spend a lot of time in the local clinic in order to pass severe medical examination. If you are a groupie – you can relax as medical tests are not necessary.
And finally, it is really a good idea for people, who have some problems with their health to be insured and helped. You won’t be obliged to pass medical tests.
It sounds really exciting to buy health insurance for small business. But don’t make up the final decision till you hear about the weak points of this policy.
Disadvantages of Health Insurance for Small Business
This kind of contract is signed by two parts – your employer and the representative of the insurance company. As you see, your name is not in the list. Thus the deal can be cancelled by one of those two and they won’t ask your permission.
The next, the most evident weak point, is that you are the part of this insurance group only till you work there. In case you change your work place, you can get the individual policy from the same company without passing medical tests. This option is valid only during the first month.
The next disadvantage of this policy is the fact, that the insurance company can increase the premiums by its own will if there are too many claims from your enterprise during the year. Thus you can pay more than you have presumed at the very beginning of the deal.
Finally, the group policy is filled in by every worker individually. It means that if anyone has made mistakes – the police may be considered as invalid.
Although the list of cons is quite long, still workers prefer to reduce their costs and look for the best one among small business health insurance plans.
How to Get the Best One from Small Business Health Insurance Plans?
If you have analyzed all the facts about health insurance for small business and every worker of your small firm knows, that getting business insurance is the best idea, you need to study business insurance plans to find that one that suits your needs.
There are several ways, how it is possible to get business health insurance plans.
- Contact directly some insurance company. It is a good idea. The representatives will give you the necessary recommendations and help you to choose the most appropriate insurance plan. But it is impossible to compare its rates with many other insurance companies to find out, if its proposal is the most profitable. In any case you can always learn about the rates of other companies online.
- Contact independent insurance agent. This idea sounds good as this agent represents various insurance companies. He can compare their rates for you and find the best one health insurance plan.
- The other idea is to join some huge business association. Thus you will become the part of a large pool of customers and it makes your monthly premiums really miserable. But the small companies that were joined to such a huge association complain that they are lack of personal attention and stay unnoticeable.
To sum up, you can try to decrease your expanses and become the part of business health insurance at your office. But this deal has its weak points and you should be aware of them.
Get the policy, get discounts and stay strong!