Ohio Employers Paying for Employees Individual and Family Health Insurance Policies

Posted by Andrew Friesner

August 16, 2010

Many employers in Ohio do not realize that they have the option to get individual health insurance and replace there expensive small group health policies. Whether your company is in Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton or Cleveland this information will apply. Let’s look at the implications and understand why whether individual or a small group plan is your best option as an employer.

First, we need to understand the differences between Small Group health or employer sponsored health insurance and individual/family or private insurance. individual Health Insurance and Small Group health insurance is quite different in a few key ways:

First, it is governed by the state of Ohio and coverage is guaranteed issue to qualified small companies with 2-50 employees. This means that a person with a legitimate full time employer-employee relationship cannot be declined due to health. This can become a problem if an employer would like to cover everyone and they have employees with major health concerns.
Individual/Family health insurance is quite different in this respect. Individuals must qualify based on health in a process called medical underwriting. They can be declined coverage have rates increased based on their health history or status. This difference in medical qualification is a big issue for small groups that pay for individual health insurance plans for their employees if the group is eligible or capable of providing group health.
Lower health Insurance Premiums through Individual Health Insurance Plans. Because individual and family health insurance policies are individually underwritten, they most likely will be much less expensive. But individuals can be declined coverage.
Paying for individual health plans can be payed for pretax through a billing process called a “List Bill”, which is similar to the group health insurance billing process, but assumed that the employer is not paying for any of the premiums. Although the employer must not pay any of the premium directly, all premiums can still be deducted as an employee deduction.
Individual and Family health insurance polices can be customized. Unlike a small group policy, an individual policy can be different for each and every employee. Because the policy is owned by the employee and not the employer, they are able to choose the specific plan that meets there needs.
Individual and Family health insurance plans are portable unlike the small group health insurance plans. Due to the fact that COBRA only applies to employers over 20 full time employees, if the employee would leave or become sick and be unable to work, they would not be eligible for keeping their coverage.

Determining what is right for you and your employees can be difficult. The reality is every situation is different and in todays environment many times we are required to simply look at cost, but also weigh out how underwriting and your employer goals will be effected by your decision. Each employers situation is different and you need to determine what is best for you and your employees.

For more information regarding small business, individual or family health insurance programs, please feel free to contact a licensed independent health insurance specialist of Chaser Insurance Group at (513)217-9491 or (877)775-4321. You can also reach an agent by email at AF@HealthInsuranceChaser.com.

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