Small Biz Owners - Are Your "Benefits" Actually Costing Employees More?
Posted by Sharon Nuttall on Wednesday, October 7, 2015 Under: Group Health Insurance
In another perplexing conundrum of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), health insurance benefits offered to employees and their families may well actually be costing the employees MORE!
How could that be? Here's how:
The ACA states that if a person has access to health insurance, whether through an employer plan (even as the spouse or child) or a government program such as CHIP or Medicaid or whatever, they are NOT eligible for any subsidy to reduce premium costs on an individual plan - even if their income would normally qualify them for a subsidy!
Now, the average small business finds it overwhelming enough to cover half or more of their employees' premiums, so most are unable to pay toward the cost of spouse or dependent coverage. So the employee ends up shouldering the full premium for his/her family.
For most employees, having that $600 - $800 - $1000 or more sucked out of each month's pay puts an awfully big dent in the monthly budget.
What's the solution? It's really amazingly simple. For small business owners, just offer the health insurance benefit to the employees, NOT to family members! Then, the family can shop for an individual health plans (or multiple plans, if some members of the family need more coverage than others) that are custom-tailored to that particular family group.
And now the family members would be eligible for subsidies if they meet the income requirements, which are actually quite liberal. For example, a family of four with an MAGI under about $94,000 is eligible for reduced premiums due to subsidies. (By "family of four," I mean the family size that would be used when filing income tax returns. Even if they're buying health insurance for only two or three of the family members, it's still a "family of four" for subsidy calculation purposes.)
If you're finding all of this confusing, just give me a call. I will enter all the relevant information into my specialized agent software. It will provide a quote showing all the plans available and will even calculate whether you're eligible for subsidy and the amount!
Easy peezy! And better yet, it's FREE!
Sharon Nuttall
704-464-8040
sharon@eHealthInsuranceSolutions.com
How could that be? Here's how:
The ACA states that if a person has access to health insurance, whether through an employer plan (even as the spouse or child) or a government program such as CHIP or Medicaid or whatever, they are NOT eligible for any subsidy to reduce premium costs on an individual plan - even if their income would normally qualify them for a subsidy!
Now, the average small business finds it overwhelming enough to cover half or more of their employees' premiums, so most are unable to pay toward the cost of spouse or dependent coverage. So the employee ends up shouldering the full premium for his/her family.
For most employees, having that $600 - $800 - $1000 or more sucked out of each month's pay puts an awfully big dent in the monthly budget.
What's the solution? It's really amazingly simple. For small business owners, just offer the health insurance benefit to the employees, NOT to family members! Then, the family can shop for an individual health plans (or multiple plans, if some members of the family need more coverage than others) that are custom-tailored to that particular family group.
And now the family members would be eligible for subsidies if they meet the income requirements, which are actually quite liberal. For example, a family of four with an MAGI under about $94,000 is eligible for reduced premiums due to subsidies. (By "family of four," I mean the family size that would be used when filing income tax returns. Even if they're buying health insurance for only two or three of the family members, it's still a "family of four" for subsidy calculation purposes.)
If you're finding all of this confusing, just give me a call. I will enter all the relevant information into my specialized agent software. It will provide a quote showing all the plans available and will even calculate whether you're eligible for subsidy and the amount!
Easy peezy! And better yet, it's FREE!
Sharon Nuttall
704-464-8040
sharon@eHealthInsuranceSolutions.com
