Saturday
Is There Really Such a Thing As Affordable Group Insurance?
A lot of small business people think that the term affordable and group insurance don't belong in the same sentence, but they're wrong. With proper front end planning and design, employee health insurance can be quite affordable. With the help of a good group insurance agent, a business can design a custom plan to fit their needs and end up with very affordable group insurance.
Following are a few areas of a group plan the business owner can modify in order to make group insurance affordable.
· Varying the limits on the maximum benefit amount allowed in a single year or for a single event can lower the cost of a company's health insurance significantly and yet still provide a good plan for employees.
· Another component to achieving affordable health insurance plan is through the annual deductibles. A businesses may want to set their employee deductibles at levels that keep their group insurance costs down in conjunction with other variables and yet make most of their employees feel like their deductible is manageable. It's a fine line but with proper set up and management, can be achieved.
· Co-pays for employees is another part of an insurance's plan design that helps keep the cost to the business to a very manageable level. It's a great way to lower the cost of the plan.
· Utilizing in network health care providers can also reduce the plan's cost. Most health care plan providers have this feature. Also, often times your employee's current health care providers are included in the network.
· Giving prescription discounts instead of direct payment coverage will give a benefit to the employee, especially if the discount includes non-prescription items.
· One feature that many small businesses utilize to lower their plan's cost is through employee contributions. Utilizing employee contributions, even at low levels not only keeps costs low for the business but it also incents them to keep costs down.
· Lastly, one type of group insurance that can significantly lower the cost is what is called a mini-plan. A mini-plan is a very affordable health plan. While, this type plan offers less coverage than comprehensive plans, they offer a surprising amount of health care coverage that many employees will feel gives them good health care expense coverage.
When designing a group health insurance plan, utilizing the above options can result in a very affordable benefit for a business.
Ron_Stone
