While not required by the state, many employers with less than fifty employees may want to provide health coverage. This type of benefit may help small business owners to attract and retain quality employees. For the employer, there are some favorable tax consequences for offering individual and family plans to employees. If you are an owner looking at options for Florida small business health insurance, you have several excellent choices to consider.
Some of the Florida small business health insurance policies that are available to employers are the traditional major medical plans and the four choices of approved managed care plans in the state. Laws require that insurance companies offer guaranteed issue policies to businesses with fifty or fewer employees. This type of plan is important as it assures that policies may not be denied based on the history of the employersý health claims or due to the pre-existing conditions of any of the individual employees. These traditional plans are the most common policies offered by both large and small employers.
For many employers, Florida small business health insurance under the traditional options may be out of financial reach. These employers still have other choices in offering their employees some type of health coverage. One affordable choice may be the high deductible health plan, or an HDHP. In an HDHP, the deductible for individual employees must be at least $1,000 and for family coverage at least $2,000. The HDHP must meet the out of pocket expense criteria of no more than $5,000 for individuals and $10,000 for families. The costs to the employer for these types of plans are much less expensive than the traditional options.
An employer may choose an HDHP as only one part of a Florida small business health insurance coverage package. Employers who opt for this type of plan may choose to offer employees a health reimbursement arrangement or an HRA. This is an arrangement that is funded by the employer to pay for employees qualified medical expenses. As an alternative to the HRA, the employer may choose to set up health savings accounts for employees to contribute tax free dollars via payroll deductions to pay for qualified medical expenses with their own funds. Employers who opt for an HDHP may also choose to add supplemental policies for accident, disability, vision, dental, specific illness, or long-term care. All of these choices should be thoroughly discussed with a licensed insurance agent.