What are the Small Group Benefits When it Comes to Insurance Coverage?
In the year 2012 the U.S. Census revealed that there are around 28 million small businesses in the state that provides employment to 52.6 million Americans. Although at present it isn’t a legal requirement for small business to provide insurance coverage to their employees, it’s certainly one of the most important factor when recruiting and retaining top talents.
Traditional Plans vs. “Managed Care”
Small group benefits offered by a particular group health insurance plan depends on many different aspects, including whether it’s a traditional plan or a “managed care” plan.
Traditional plans often come with higher premiums, but offers access to wider option for medical practitioners, services and institutions. On the other hand, a managed care plan would usually cost considerably less, however the choices would be a little limited when it comes to medical services.
Both type of plans are sold by major health insurance providers, and most states require that the employer covers at least 50% of the premium costs.
However, many employers think that they need to pay 100% of the premium costs, discouraging them from offering this crucial employee benefit. Most of the employers agree that not offering adequate health insurance coverage affects their relationships with the employees in an adverse way, with 75% revealing that their business suffers due to not offering small group benefits related to health insurance coverage to their employees.
Reasons for Providing Health Insurance Coverage to Your Employees
After going through the information above, it could be concluded that providing employees with health insurance coverage may not be as expensive as many employers think, and not doing so may not allow the business to grow at its full potential.
Let’s take a look at why a small business should consider providing health insurance coverage, though it isn’t required to.
Recruiting and Retaining Top Talent
As mentioned, group insurance coverage is currently considered to be one of the most important employee benefits, it displays a great impact on attracting new talent. This is especially true when it comes to small companies, as most new employees may be interested to join a large business instead of a small business.
Similarly, even some of your best employees may consider joining another company that offers better employee benefits at some point in the future, but with the help of a great group health insurance plan may prevent them from doing so.
Tax Benefits
Offering a group health insurance coverage would also present a considerably wide range of benefit for both employees and employers in terms of taxes. Firstly, all the expenses incurred for providing the insurance coverage would be 100% tax-deductible for the business.
If the employer exerts effort in taking care of the legal formalities, even the employees’ contribution can be made on a pre-tax basis. The employer can also make the employees’ contribution BEFORE paying them, so that they won’t have to deal with any tax liabilities related to their contribution and end up with a higher take-home pay than they otherwise would.