Group health plans are becoming outrageous. It’s becoming more and more difficult for companies to offer group benefits. Even with the Affordable Care Act, group plan premiums continue to soar, creating a problem for employers and employees alike.
We’re here to tell you that if you have fewer than 50 full-time or full-time equivalent employees, then group health insurance is wrong for your company.
You heard right. It’s wrong. There are a lot of reasons, and we’re sharing just a few:
1. One size doesn’t fit all.
A group health plan is just one plan. As an employer, you know your employees hail from all walks of life; each employee is different and has unique needs. With a group plan, employees can end up frustrated with a high deductible or upset they can’t see their doctor because that doctor is out of network. Health and health insurance are important
2. Offering a group plan disqualifies your employees for federal subsidies.
That’s right, you could be doing your employees a disservice by offering a group plan. You are not required by the Affordable Care Act to offer a group health plan if you have fewer than 50 employees. In fact, you could be spending money on your employees that they could be getting in federal subsidies.
Group health plans are increasingly expensive.
According to an annual survey released by the National Business Group on Health, group health renewals will cost an increased average of 6.5% in 2015. In addition, 60% of employers cite health care costs are their biggest challenge (according to Metlife’s12th Annual U.S. Employee Benefit Trends Study). If you’re not required to, why should you purchase a group plan?
But wait, now you’re wondering how to offer employees any kind of benefit if you don’t have a group plan. We’ve got the solution: individual health plans, and then some.
Stay tuned next Wednesday for the 3 Reasons Individual Health Plans Work for Small Buisnesses, where we outline how individual plans, and a little bit of our technology can fix your group health plan woes.
(Psssst! Want to know the solution NOW? Go check out benefitcredits.com!)