Curious about health insurance for your business in Arizona? Here are seven facts about group health insurance to help get you started. If you’d like more information or would like to see a quote for your group, please don’t hesitate to fill out our group quote form, or call us at (800) 600-9663.
Seven Small Business Health Insurance Facts
1. If you have two or more employees (yourself included), you cannot be turned down for a group health insurance plan, as long as you meet certain eligibility requirements. Whether or not there are major health conditions, your group will be accepted for coverage.
2. By law, you as the employer must pay for at least 50% of your employees’ premium. However, you are not required to pay anything toward the employees’ family members portion of the premium.
3. The insurance companies require that 75% of your eligible employees get on the plan. You may choose what constitutes an eligible employee. For example, you may designate that in order to be eligible, employees must work 35 hours a week and have been employed for over 90 days.
4. Employees who are covered through their spouse’s health insurance plan are not counted among eligible employees. This may make your 10 employees now become 9 eligible employees. If 7 employees enroll under this situation, your group will be accepted because you now have at least 75% of your eligible employees enrolling.
5. You will be asked to provide health history information for each employee, and the insurer will decide what to charge you each month based upon your group’s age, gender, and health status.
6. Most group insurance plans have a 12 month waiting period for pre-existing conditions to be covered. However, the waiting period is waived if you have prior coverage with no more than a 63 day gap in coverage.
7. If you have less than 25 employees, you may qualify for a Small Business Health Care Tax Credit. Click here for more information and to see if you may qualify.
We represent all major health insurance companies that offer group policies in Arizona, including Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona, United HealthCare, Aetna, Humana, Health Net, and more.
You can begin the process of getting rate quotes for your firm by calling us at (800) 600-9663, or completing the small form located on our Arizona group health insurance rate request page. Plans are available in Phoenix, Tucson, Mesa, Scottsdale, and all Arizona communities.
