Group health insurance is a type of coverage available all over the world although the specifics might vary for different states and different countries. There is an old saying, “power comes in numbers”, and for group insurance, this is definitely the case. This particular type of insurance is provided through an employer and today, more than 200 million people worldwide have some type of group coverage.
Without doubt, group insurance offers a number of benefits over individual insurance. For instance, because this insurance is for everyone working for the same company, any risk is distributed evenly. In other words, if a company of 100 people had two or three employees with expensive medical conditions, instead of those individuals paying all the high cost, expenses are spread out. While this might seem unfair, the truth is the very opposite. With group insurance, if an employee were to become seriously ill or injured, costs for the coverage would be affordable.
Another advantage to having group insurance for health coverage is that employees cannot be denied coverage for any reason whatsoever. Therefore, when an employee is hired, no matter that person’s past or present health, coverage would be provided. Obviously, this is a big deal since other types of health insurance have very strict limitations for past health problems or pre-existing conditions.
Keep in mind that for a company to offer employees group insurance, certain criteria must be met. Usually, the company would need to have 100 or more full-time employees. However, some group insurance options exist for companies with 50 to 100 employees although coverage is generally not as good. Now, because group coverage is so important, we now see a few insurance companies selling group insurance to companies with as few as two employees and in some cases, for someone who is self-employed.
The cost of group insurance is split between the company and the employee in most instances. Usually, the company would cover a good portion of the cost for group health insurance, which would be part of the benefits that the company uses as an incentive when hiring new employees. For instance, an employee may pay only 20% for coverage for an individual policy and up to around 28% for a family of four.
The cost to the employee for group insurance depends on a number of factors but on average, the cost would be anywhere from $250 to $500 a month for a normal size family and a little less for individual coverage. The advantages of group insurance is that most employers pay the brunt of the expense, the enrollment process is quick and easy, and employers can choose from a number of plans, some they would include maternity, dental, vision, fertility treatment, etc and some not.
While group insurance that offers all the different features is great for people that need the coverage, for employees that would not need a certain type of coverage, it would be unfortunately to pay for it. As an example, a man would not need maternity coverage with group insurance. Because of the different needs of employees, companies will often choose a core policy and then allow employees to add on other coverage, as needed for an additional price.
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