The Cost Of Business Health Insurance

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Lately there has been a lot of talk concerning health insurance for business. Business owners have complained, and loudly in many states, to the local politicians about the escalating costs of health insurance. Business owners are seeing yearly increases of over 10-12% per year in premiums while the coverage either stagnates or begins to eliminate certain items. So for business owners, health insurance is beginning to look like a costly option. Meanwhile, insurance companies are still advising that business have health insurance to attract quality employees. Arkansas and Alaska are two states that have held hearings about the issue. States such as Pennsylvania and New York have state sponsored programs so that there are more options for employer and employee when it comes to business health insurance. Unfortunately, business health insurance is almost as needed as business property insurance when it comes to dealing with income and ongoing operations.

Keeping Insurance Costs Down

Keep your employees healthy – many larger corporations are starting to work on this angle. Business’s are initiating programs to promote exercise, healthy living, cancer screenings and even offering flu shots. The idea being that a healthy employee costs less than using the business health insurance policy.
Reduce the amount of coverage – today many employers are asking their employees to pay into the business health insurance policy with the common contribution being near the 50% mark. It is also fairly common today for business owners to exclude dental and vision coverage.
Start health savings accounts – these are becoming more popular with small business owners. These tax-exempt accounts, which can only pay for certain medical expenses, could reduce costs for a small business health insurance policy and give employees tax breaks.
Join a group or HMO – small business health insurance plans can take the form of group plans which cover between two and 50 employees. The larger the group, the less the premiums are to pay. If your business has less than 10 employees, you can still partner up with other businesses or individuals to expand the group plan. To do this you need to have all members be in the same state.
Shop around for business health insurance – different providers will give different rates; especially if they know they are in competition with other insurance companies. Start asking other business owners near you about their health insurance costs. Search the internet for lower rates with such sites as eHealthInsurance.

These are just five simple steps you can take to reduce the cost of health insurance for business owners both small and larger.

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