Tax season has just ended, thankfully. Did you know that one of the areas that I can provide you with some help is with health insurance advice as regards your taxes? As a small business owner, if you offer health insurance as a benefit, that is a deduction/expense for your company. Ensuring that you make the right choices for the health coverage you offer your employees is important. I get a lot of questions from small business owners – and it is usually very small businesses, one to two employees – and often these questions have to do with group insurance coverage. Many of my clients did not use to offer health insurance to their employees before, but now are having to do so as a means to hire and retain their employees. Let’s look more closely at this today.

A major concern in today’s small business market is ensuring that you can offer your staff good benefits when it comes to health insurance. It seems that many people are having trouble hiring and retaining staff, and benefits are a huge factor in an employee choosing to take the job. If it is a really small company (one to two employees), being able to offer them either a 100% employee plan or allowing the employee to buy upon a different plan and pay in the difference can be a viable option for you. One of my goals is to help my small business clients retain their employees, and I am here to advise you on the best options available for you and your employees.

As an example, I have a client right now where the owner (their employer) is currently on Marketplace. Once we put the selected group plan in place, they did not qualify for the subsidy on the Marketplace. This meant that it will now cost them about the same to either pay full price on the Marketplace or to do the group plan. My client has chosen to enroll in the group plan because this gives the best options for both the employer and the employee. The group plan allows us to select two plans – a lower tier and a higher tier.

• For the employer:
  • The employer can select the lower-tier plan and pay the full amount.
  • An employee can select this plan and it would be fully covered by their employer.
  • This option is affordable for the employer and allows them to offer fully covered health insurance.

• For the employee:
  • The employee has the option to select the next level up.
  • The employee is responsible for the increase in premium and gets the benefits of being on the higher tier.

In this case, the employee is responsible for about $65 a month; to have a $35 copay plan with a $3,000 deductible, is not a bad deal at all. I don’t know where else you are going to get that quality insurance for that little cost.

Another thing to consider as a small business owner is offering add-ons to your health insurance plan. I also offer assistance in add-on options for your business – whether that be dental, vision, and more. You can set up an appointment with me to discuss your options.

Bonus tip of the day: When reviewing coverage for your employees, you don’t necessarily have to have PPO coverage. Many people think that they do – but if your doctors are already in-network, you can explore other plans that are not PPO, and you can save a lot on premiums for your employees that way.