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Article Series:
Health Insurance
Health
Insurance Tips For Small Business Owners
When going into business on your own, it is
hard to look past the overhead cost you have just sunk into
it. There several other issues that needs to be on the forefront
of your business now. As you hire people to work for you, what
are you going to be able to offer them? In today’s market employers
must offer competitive wages and benefits to attract and keep
good employees. Small business owners who have less than 20
employees are not required to provide medical insurance but
if you want high quality workers, you better get it. There
is a high demand for small business owners to provide health
care benefits. With the rising cost of medical treatment, most
people cannot afford to not have health insurance and will
gladly leave a job that doesn’t off it. Some people prefer
to have a slightly lower wage than not have benefits. When
you offer your employees benefits that save them long-term
money, it makes them want to stay with you and not go somewhere
else.
The new
trend in the job market is that the low-wage hourly
workers, the people most like to be uninsured, are now being
offered medical plans in their budget ranges. Small restaurant
owners, day care providers, and other small businesses are
realizing that to get good people to stay, they need to offer
them an incentive. Almost all people expect heath benefits
today to be in their benefit packages. This can be costly to
you, the small business owner, because the best group rates
are for large companies with lots of employees. You might find
yourself forced to give a higher premium to your employees,
but having the benefit is better than nothing. Plus even though
they pay a higher premium, it is still much less expensive
than a private rate for them. You need to stay competitive
though and not offer something that is truly different than
all other businesses, including large ones. If the overall
cost to the employee is so high, then they might just decide
to go work somewhere else.
Find out what your employees need the most and purchase plans
that fulfill those needs and not a bunch of things they are
not interested in. Most basic plans can cover routine doctor
visits, sick visits, hospitalizations, medications, and emergencies
and still be a reasonable price. You might want to look at
what larger companies offer and see if you can make some of
that work for you and your employees. The playing field is
not fair for the small business owners; premiums are higher
and more expensive than for larger places. But there are many
ways to get a good package that is still reasonable in cost.
Make sure you know what types of coverage is mandatory and
what is not. Some states have requirements on such things like
fertility treatments that even though your employees might
not need are a necessity. These types of necessities are what
make it so hard for the small business owner to provide affordable
health coverage.
Don’t despair, there is still hope. There’s no question about
it that small businesses are in a tough spot. You are not powerless
though by any means. There are several options including having
the employee pay more of their own premium, having higher co-pays
for employees, making sure you have an HMO verses a PPO, and
also having the plans be just for the employee rather than
offering a family plan. You can also save money in what type
of prescription drug plan you are going to offer. Many doctors
are offering more medical treatments for correcting diseases
and disorders verses more costly invasive procedures. With
higher drug costs and most of that cost having to be passed
to the employee, it might be better to offer a drug plan then
to have that included in the health package. The employee will
pay a very small premium for this benefit and save 50% or more
on their prescriptions. If you decide to include prescriptions
in your over all plan, think about having higher co-pay at
the pharmacy. So, instead of a smaller $5-$10 co-pay you might
have it raised to $20-$30 to save money on the monthly premium. Click here to to view health insurance quotes, compare plans side-by-side and apply for the most affordable health insurance within your budget. I did this myself (June 17, 2011) to change my health insurance policy. Saved me $84 per month (or $1,008 per year). It's my SolveYourProblem recommendation.
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by SolveYourProblem.com
: 2006
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