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TIA
The employees will very likely pay the vast majority of the premium out of pocket. They will pay the rest of the premium as well...in the form of lower wages and fewer bonuses.
A terribly cynical view, but getting to be the norm.
You may very well be able to find some sort of collecting bargaining power through the trade organizations for your industry if there are any.
Of course, when the actual health assessment was done, the insurance company raised the price to $205 saying it was based on pre-existing conditions. So I covered $165 and the employees pick up the rest. It works out to a $1 an hour increase in pay.
As for finding group rates, I think that may be more myth than reality. For example, I looked at NFIB's plan which supposedly leveraged their huge power against the insurance companies. As I discovered, the rates were precisely the same as those offered by the insurance company without NFIB.
Maybe someone else has more luck but if NFIB can't accomplish it with 1 million+ members, I don't know who can.
diamondgrl: Thanks.
Anybody else have suggestions on how to get decent rates?
It's great to hear there may still be a few bosses in the private sector who are looking for their employees.
If more employers could see past the face cost of healthcare and see the value in giving their employees one less reason to leave (or one more reason to stay) things would be easier.
Too few employers truly understand the cost of training a replacement employee after a veteran has left. I don't care if it's Mcwidgets or Widgetsoft turnover costs more than ponying up a buck or two an hour for healthcare.
Oh, and good for you diamondgrl!
Here in Hawaii businesses have to provide insurance for employees working at least 20 hrs per week. You can get insurance at reasonable rates from HMSA (division of blue cross) or Kaiser. These all cover existing conditions so it works quite well, although of course is a burden for small business owners.
Unfortunately, I'm self-employed and you can't get onto the good plans!
His company has an incredible "win-win" product for small business owners. They will set up a "flex plan" where ALL insurance, plus child care and medical expense accounts are administered FREE OF CHARGE. The employer pays NOTHING and the employees get a substantial discount on premiums through doing payroll payments, vs. direct-pay individual coverage.
An established supplemental insurance agent, with this company at least, usually has brokers he works with who can arrange for group-rate regular health care coverage. However going through a broker first often means the business owner ends up paying for a flex plan (pre-tax plan) to be administered, this can run up to $3000 a year! With my husband's company the flex plan is administered FREE OF CHARGE. I highly recommend you first contact a supplemental insurance agent from the company with the duck ads (I don't know if I ought to mention their name outright on this forum) and see what he/she can offer you.
My only reservation regarding this particular company is that all agents are independant representives, thus a few don't understand and represent the product well. Ask how long the agent has been representing the product and you'll get a good idea of his/her level of competency. My husband sometimes has to clean up after a fly-by-night agent who was in and out of the company within a few months.
Supplemental insurance through the company with the duck ads "pays you when you are ill or injured and can't work" - they have several different policies, accident, disability, life insurance, dental coverage - it varies from state to state but the agent always meets with each employee individually to design a package which meets his/her needs.
I really believe the product my husband represents is a win/win deal for small business owners. When you run a small business your employees are like family members, as the owner you want to help them when they can't work. My parents were business owners while I was growing up, their office manager got terminal cancer and my dad promised the employee he would continue getting a check for as long as he lived - which turned out to be nearly 3 years. If this employee had been covered under a supplemental insurance cancer plan he would have gotten paid every week, and my dad wouldn't have felt obligated to continue issuing a check to an employee who was unable to work. I was in high school at the time and ended up working after school everyday at my parent's business while this guy was out ill. My dad couldn't add another full-time employee to the payroll while still paying the guy with cancer. I think my dad's other employees took note of my dad's commitment to his employees, but everyone also had to take on an extra workload during this period.
If you happen to be in Minnesota feel free to contact me and I will pass your contact info onto my husband.
Forgive me - I know this all sounds like advertisement for the company my husband represents, but it's such a good deal for small business owners I just can't help but tell others about it!
As soon as I get two full-time employees, plus myself which would make three, I will be signing up my company with this coverage. Right now our family purchases our own health insurance, and it's not cheap because my husband is a sole-proprietor. We have a very high deductible and have supplemental insurance which pays out everytime we have an emergency - such as the stitches I got in the back of my head on Christmas morning while putting together a playmobil set (don't ask!) The supplemental insurance covered most of the ER charge. When I was hospitalized for 7 weeks with pregnancy complications 5 years ago the supplemental insurance payout was $30,000. It covered our deductible AND paid for childcare for our other children while my husband continued working and I was being held hostage on hospital bedrest. We had enough left over to buy a used minivan for our family. My husband didn't do any cold-calling during this period, and didn't open any new accounts, so the supplemental insurance covered his lost income during my hospital stay. Good deal.
Health insurance is a real need, no doubt about it, but it's designed to pay the medical providers - leaving you with all your expenses still hanging out there. When you are ill or injured and can't work you need to make sure your expenses are met - supplemental insurance is equally important in my book. The premium costs are low for supplemental coverage, and when you have supplemental medical coverage you can opt for higher deductibles on your regular health insurance coverage.
Insurance is a difficult issue for small business owners, most business owners cringe at the costs and rightly so... this makes it difficult for agents such as my husband - who have a totally win-win product to offer to business owners - to get in the door and explain the benefits of their product line.
