Faced with continually climbing health insurance premiums, a record share of employers have moved to plans that require workers to pay more out of their pocket, in order to offer affordable small group health insurance in Brentwood and the remaining United States.
In 2011 half of the workers in small firms , are faced with annual deductible plans of $ 1000 and more. In 2006, that figure was only 16 percent. Even in large companies the share has grown from 6 percent to 22 percent.
Accordingly to the Kaiser Family Foundation health insurance premiums have increased for 2011 around 9 percent,after several years of slower annual insurance premium growth.
Many small firms, who are seeing health insurance premium raises between 6 to 9 percent annually, have decided to switch their contribution methods. Instead of paying 50 %, or more generous companies pay 80%. of the health insurance premium for their employees, many small firms now contribute a fixed dollar amount per employee ( for example $ 100 or $ 200 ). This allows small companies to budget their health care cost annually, but causes workers to absorb the annual premium increases. With the fixed dollar amount contribution older employees will have to pay a higher share. The cheapest plan for a 60 year ranges between $ 600- $ 700 monthly. If the employer contributes monthly $ 100, than the employee has to pay $ 500.- With a 50 % contribution, the employer and employee would share the cost of approx. $ 300 each. The fixed dollar amount contribution is obviously a disadvantageous for older employees. But it might be for small companies the only way to offer affordable group health insurance. With the fixed dollar amount contribution method the small company knows its annual health insurance cost and is not discriminating against older employees, as the contributions are the same for everyone. Although in the US companies cannot discriminate against age, small companies do evaluate in their hiring process the cost of health insurance . So one major advantage of the fixed dollar amount contribution in the hiring process is that older employees have the same chance of finding a job as a younger employees, as the health insurance expense for the small firm is the same regardless of age.
In this challenging time of raising health insurance premiums you need a health insurance expert for your small firm to find affordable health insurance in Brentwood.