Group Health Insurance

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CLICK HERE FOR A DEDICATED WEBSITE ON GROUP INSURANCE

Also Known as "Workplace Insurance"

First, As This Site is Created, This Benefit is Available only in Fl due to the requirement for personal work with the companies. Check back later for extension to TX, AZ, OHIO, and NC.

The Group Health Insurance News

"Group" health insurance as most people know it is all but gone, and probably will be completely phased out IN ITS CURRENT FASHION by 2014, assuming the current Health Care Reform Act is kept in place as written. Quite simply, as required, it will be too expensive for most companies to offer. Now the operative words here are "as we know it".

What does that mean? Quite simply, it's a plan where an employee, and often his or her family members are offered one or more choices (usually less than 2) and the offer is extended to all full time employees regardless of any pre existing condition, tobacco use status, or in most cases, without even reporting ht and wt. About the only restriction is that an employee usually does not qualify for this benefit until having been employed a stipulated period of time.

It can either be offered by the employer directly or in some cases through an organization, most usually a union. A salary contribution is sometimes, but not always, required. Some arrangements are that the employer provides insurance for the employee under one fee schedule (often free) but the employee must pay for any family members.

The employee has little control or say over the makeup of the plan they have, and if they leave employment of the company, the policy usually terminates, although there are some provisions, including COBRA where the policy can be extended, usually with the employee paying for this.

This is "group insurance" as most readers know it, and in fact the type of insurance over 60% of Americans have been covered by.

Due to the requirements of the Health Care Reform act on the cost of coverage of this type, it will soon be unaffordable.

Does this mean the end of work place provided, or group insurance?

The answer can be "yes" or "no" depending on again how one defines group insurance.

There's GOOD NEWS

Workplace and employer FUNDED, but not PROVIDED is currently available, and often at greater benefit to the employee and employer alike RIGHT NOW

The good news is that under some relatively new IRS, HIPPA, and ERISA rules an employer can set aside a certain amount of money, pre tax, and allocate it to the employee, for the purchase of health insurance. This is not considered WAGES, so for the employee, no taxes are with held. Some wages as wages may be reduced and this amount replacing the wages. Same gross money, but as taxes are not with held from this amount, the actual cash availability to the employee goes up!

For the employer, they are putting money into a special fund with all the business expense tax deductibility, but as it is NOT WAGES, there is no requirement for a employer matching contribution to things such as Social Security.. currently 7.62% of wages! Their bottom line increases!

So what does the employee do with this money? They must use it for medical expenses, but these include both health insurance premiums as well as law-defined medical expenses.

The average employee will now select from a variety of health insurance plans, under the coordination of the company who will insure that training in selection is provided. Some plans will cost less than the set aside, and this can be used or reserved for medical expenses such as deductibles and copays. Some plans will be quite a bit less expensive. Others may cost more, as in the case of smokers who received the same plans as non smokers under the old group rules.

The employee pays for the plan but his company, through the new set aside reimburses the employee through normal payroll procedures. Now the question is , "If the employee is paying for the plan, do they own it?" and the answer is YES. If they lose their job, quit, etc. the policy remains theirs and in force as long as they continue to make the payments... and again, these would normally be much less than the old cobra type payments. Also, the plan does not expire or go away after a period of time as COBRA did. It will remain in force as long as the payments are made.

While this is a simplification of the process, it actually has a few very strict requirements to put it into place, but there are firms that do this for a company for a very low or nominal fee. One such company can be reached by clicking HERE.

Summary:  The NEW way offers financial incentives to companies, both those currently offering insurance but looking for ways to reduce costs, as well as those companies not currently offering this benefit but who would like to. Benefits like this go a long way toward attracting and keeping good employees.

If you are an employer in Fl with 2 or more employees, including yourself, please contact us for a free initial evaluation.

If you are an employee working for a company that does not currently offer you health insurance through work and you would like to introduce this concept to your employer, you too are invited to contact us. You can currently have private health insurance and this may be convertible into the new plan at a significant out of pocket savings to yourself.