More Reasons to offer your
California employees Group
health insurance
Why You Should Offer
Health Insurance Benefits to
Your Employees
Health insurance benefits
are of great importance to
employees these days. This is
no big secret. Many polls and
surveys have shown employees
value health insurance second
only to monetary compensation
when ranking compensation
factors at a place of
employment. As health insurance
premiums go higher and higher
the availability of an Employer
sponsored small group plan
becomes more valuable.
Predictable Rates
If the
business is very small you’ve
probably considered individual
and family plans thinking these
rates will save you money. But,
did you know if you have any
health conditions the pricing
you can be assigned with rate
increases could be greater than
premiums assigned through the
business plan? The allowable
rate increases assigned through
the small group plans is only an
extra 10% greater than standard
pricing! You can read more on
assigning group health insurance
rates in our section on
group insurance pricing.
Tax Breaks
There are many tax
incentives available to both you
the Employer and your employees
which you can take advantage of
when offering a
California Small
Group health insurance plan.
Your employees can pay for their
portion of the health insurance
premiums with pre-tax payroll
dollars. This pre-tax premium
deduction reduces your Employer
portion of the payroll tax. The
premiums themselves are 100% tax
deductible to you, the Employer,
for the Employer Premium
Contribution amount.
Employee Retention
The ability to attract
and retain the best employees is
perhaps the greatest incentive
to offer Small Group Health
Insurance coverage. Medical
related expenses are the number
one cause of bankruptcy, and the
population knows it now. An
employee with a low wage but
strong health insurance coverage
will think long and hard prior
to quitting on a whim. But a
low earning employee with no
benefits won’t think for a
second before leaving a job with
zero benefits. The cost of
medical premiums is keeping
people up at night and has
received considerable attention
in the media and political
scene.
Guaranteed Issue
California Small Group health
insurance is
‘guaranteed
issue,’ meaning coverage
is issued based on the business
qualifying not the individual.
The guaranteed language refers
to the issuance of the policy
regardless of employee health or
history. This puts the
uncertainty to bed of attempting
to obtain individual coverage
and the medical underwriting
process. Ask anyone who has
been declined for health
insurance if they were happy
with the outcome and how they
feel about the health insurance
system.
The health insurance system our
country operates within relies
on dollar contributions from the
federal government, state
government, employers, and
individual consumers. We often
hear the opinions about
government systems and the
beauty of low cost government
run universal care, but the
reality is we have a system
currently where the federal
government is the largest payer
of medical expense by far. We
have the advantage of keeping a
hybrid private market and
government subsidized system
which utilizes as much
government contributions it can
obtain. Employer sponsored
plans are a crucial facet of the
system which is less effective
when there is less Employer
participation.
Other
important
resources:
California
Small Group
health quote
California
Small Group
online
doctor
listing
California
Group
Enrollment
and
Eligibility
Center
