Small Business Health Insurance Quotes
Studies have consistently shown that small businesses are much less likely to provide health insurance to their employees than larger companies. Indeed, the smaller the business, the less likely it is to offer health insurance benefits. As recently as 2003, about 50% of the uninsured in the United States were either self-employed or worked for companies with less than 26 employees.
The main reason for this disparity is cost. Health insurance for small businesses is typically more expensive than for larger companies (on a per employee basis) because it is more difficult for insurance companies to accurately predict the average cost of medical care for a small group. That is, risk is greater for insurance companies for small businesses since small businesses have fewer employees to spread the risk of health claims. It only takes one employee with significant health claims to have a significant impact on the overall costs for the group insurance. This is also the reason why small businesses do not self-insure; the financial risk is simply too great for the majority of small businesses.
So what can a small business do if it wants to offer health insurance to its employees? Often they have no choice but to pay the premiums. More often than not they will split the cost of premiums with their employees, typically 50/50. Unfortunately, these small business health insurance plans are not only quite expensive, but also include significant deductibles and co-payments for the employees. Small businesses can sometimes reduce their health insurance costs by either joining or forming a purchasing cooperative to negotiate better rates and benefits from companies offering small business health insurance. Depending on the type of business, professional organizations can also offer better health insurance rates to small businesses.
The next step in the process is to provide some employee information. This may vary from one site to another, but typically includes name, sex, and age, and employee dependent information. The next step allows you to identify your plan requirements. Here you can specify deductibles, maternity benefits (or not), and add-ons such as dental and vision coverage. Of course, as you add benefits, you increase the cost of the policy.
At this point, you have essentially finished the application process and will soon be able to evaluate several small business health insurance quotes. Whether online or offline, the time period can vary, but it shouldn’t take more than one or two business days for an agent to get back to you. Once you have your small business health insurance quotes, you can begin comparing the various plans by costs, deductible, and other features. This information is necessary if you want to obtain a good understanding of your small business health insurance choices and how they may, or may not, fit in with your budget. More specifically, small business health insurance plans require that your employees are not covered by other health insurance plans and that they work at least 30 hours per week in order to qualify.
This article has been written by the author, Nicholas Brown. Should you require any moreSmall Business Healthplease visit his Green Business resources!
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