I just started working for a small business. For them to add me to their plan with ehealthinsurance.com it appears to cost them about $1000/mo extra. (Which they pay for 100%, so in a sense it doesn't really matter to me)
On the other hand, if I get an individual quote at ehealthinsurance.com for the plan that I want (basically any HSA plan) I can get it for $100/mo or less. (Healthy, early 30's, single non-smoker)
Am I missing something? Does the price jump when I head to checkout?
Since it is a small company I'm going to propose that they reimburse my cost to purchase individual insurance instead of group insurance. I think they will be happy to save $10k/year or so.
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I am debating the same issues right now as I'm going to changing jobs soon myself and working for a small start-up.
They all currently run individual plans...nothing group as it is just too expensive to justify going to a group plan. The other thing that is nice is that if you leave the company you dont lose the insurance. The problem is a lot of these individual plans have low lifetime max payouts so if you get something serious you might be in big trouble.
Try calling a local health insurance agent and see if they can sit down and explain your options. That is what I plan to do in a few days to learn a little more.
If you are healthy, this is a great way to go. Most small employers should be happy to do this.
Notes:
1. Group ins is usually much more than individual because most group plans must take EVERYONE regardless of health, individual plans can deny you based on your health. If you are young and healthy - this is a bonus to you.
2. Most individual plans can have the exact same coverages or better than group plans (low deductibles, 5 million lifetime maximums, etc), it's just a matter of picking the plan you want.
3. I would assume that your employer would just reimburse you for the ins cost, not increase your pay. That way the reimbursement is an expense to them and not income to you (important for tax time).
4. Only (low) potential concern is that if you get diagnosed with a major disease or whatever, that individual plan could have a major price jump next year, whereas your employer's plan might not necessarily increase.
Update: apparently our regular insurance is quite poor. So I'm going to do my best to avoid it (65% coverage up to $4k). However, since it is a small company I'm trying to get them to switch to a Lumenos HSA1500 and have the company kick in $1500.
Anyone know how much HSA1500 costs for 1-10 employees?
Not sure what how they are getting such a quote. There can not be a 10 times difference between an individual and personal quote for the same insurance. Last time I checked group insurance was actually cheaper than personal. Your personal much be missing a lot of things that your corporate plan is covering.
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