Employee health benefits for every budget

Group health insurance refers to a medical policy issued to a group (typically a business with W-2 employees, although there are other kinds of groups that can get coverage) that covers all eligible employees and sometimes their dependents.

Your business is eligible for group health insurance if:

• There are at least two people in the company
• At least one of those two people is a W-2 employee
• The group does NOT consist of only a husband and wife

If you are looking for a small business health plan for you and your spouse only, you may still be eligible if you live in the following states: Washington D.C., Washington, Hawaii, Vermont. You can start group health insurance as long as you meet eligibility even if not all your employees need insurance.

Group health insurance is pre-tax, which means you can offer this employee benefit and have it exempt from employer and employee taxes. This usually means a 30-40% tax benefit on the cost of this insurance as group insurance premiums are tax-deductible.

Individual insurance, by contrast, provides no tax benefits and must be paid for with post-tax money.

SimplyInsured is an online insurance broker who QuickBooks has partnered with to provide affordable employee health benefits options for QuickBooks customers. SimplyInsured does not administer plans. Rather, they collect price and coverage information from all carriers and provide competitive quotes. After you’re enrolled, SimplyInsured continues to provide support.

SimplyInsured, an insurance broker specializing in small business insurance plans, offers most major national carriers, including United Healthcare, Humana, Kaiser Permanente, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and Anthem. They offer HMO (Health Maintenance Organization), PPO (Preferred Provider Organization), HSA (Health Savings Account), EPO (Exclusive Provider Organization), and POS (Point of Service).

If you are purchasing small business group health insurance through a broker (not from the exchanges), you are not subject to an Open Enrollment Period, such as might be the case with a company insurance plan or through the Affordable Care Act. You can enroll in health insurance any time during the year.

Also, if you’re currently on an individual plan (ACA or not), you can switch to a small business group health insurance plan at any time.