Small Business Health Insurance

There’s more to having employees for your small business than just paying them a wage. In the United States, our system forces its citizens to rely heavily on their employers for medical insurance. The Wall Street Journal reported in 1999 that 70% of Americans obtained coverage through their employers. The only other option would be to pay high enough wages that the employees could pay cash for a doctor. What’s that you say? Health insurance looks like a better option now? I thought you’d say that.

In providing health insurance to your employees, there may be government help for you. Various state governments are starting to get involved. In New York, they have a program called “Healthy NY”, which assists small business owners in providing health insurance for their employees. The state of Ohio allows Group Purchasing Arrangements, allowing many small and medium-sized employers to band together to purchase insurance plans and hence, get lower premiums. Then Kansas has the Kansas Health Partners Benefit Association, which helps small businesses to offer affordable health insurance to their employees.

An attempt was made on the federal level not long ago, to legislate health coverage assistance for small businesses nationwide. Called the Small Business Health Insurance Promotion Act, it was to have provided tax subsidies to encourage small employers to offer affordable health coverage to their employees through qualified health pooling arrangements. Although it never passed, this does show that government is starting to think in this direction, and it might not be long before we see an act like that again come before the voters. Here’s more on other kinds of general insurance for small business.

In the mean time, check with your local business authority and also online resources. Ironically enough, it’s the bigger businesses that pay the least for health insurance. When it comes to buying group health insurance, there is most definitely strength in numbers. Remember that, no matter the size of your company, insurance companies still estimate factors such as the medical history of your employees and their dependents. These details will affect your plan premiums, so higher-risk employees will cost more to insure.

Whether you’re a small company or a Fortune 500 giant, you will want to make sure that you are getting your money’s worth out of a health plan. By all means, you should take the same health benefits package for yourself that your employees use, so that you can identify with what the value for investment ratio is.This is where you can access health insurance we think is good value for money.