Nearly 50% of insured Americans receive health insurance coverage through group plans provided by employers, according to 2019 Census data. However, many of them may not have thought much about how exactly this group health insurance works.
Group health insurance provides many benefits, but when your insurance plan is tied directly to your employment, you risk a sudden loss of health coverage should your job situation change. In 2017, 22% of uninsured Americans reported losing their health insurance due to job loss or change in employment status.
Whether you recently started a new job and want to learn more about how your new group coverage works, you already have group coverage and want to know more about it, or you just lost or quit your job and worry you’ve lost health insurance coverage, this guide can help you understand the ins and outs of group health insurance.
What is group insurance, and how does it work?
Group health insurance plans are a type of health insurance coverage offered to a group of people under the same employer or organization. Two common group insurance plans are employees of a company and organization members, with employer group plans being the most prevalent.
Because an insurance provider can spread their risk across a pool of policyholders participating in the group plan, costs are typically lower than other types of health insurance policies. This is considered to be the biggest advantage of group health insurance.
What Are the Advantages of Group Insurance?
Having group health insurance typically comes from an employer. There are many advantages to it when compared to individual insurance, and those advantages are for both the employee who gets the insurance and the employer who offers the insurance. If you are looking to understand group health insurance advantages, either as an employer or an employee, here are some things to carefully consider.
Benefits of a Group Health Insurance Plan
Offering group insurance presents several advantages for the employer:
- Protect your investment in your employees: group disability insurance and group health and dental care insurance protect your investment when an employee becomes ill or is injured.
- Maintain productivity: a group insurance plan including an employee assistance program is the perfect way of ensuring that employees remain focused on their work, to minimize absenteeism and facilitate return to work as early as possible.
- Foster retention and attraction of employees: group insurance is a significant part of the employees’ total compensation. It results in greater employee commitment and satisfaction.
- Maximize after-tax compensation: without a benefit plan, employees must pay out-of-pocket health and dental care expenses with after-tax dollars. A benefit plan can be designed so that these expenses will be paid from pre-tax income, leaving more money into the hands of your employees.
Source: www.aga.ca
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EPIA inc. is a private Insurance Agency with no ties with legal entities. The information contained in this article is based on information provided by the Medicare Official Website.