Small Business Health Insurance Blog

Britain Back To The Top

 

 

 

 

The word coming from David Cameron Britain has got to build back up its economic reputation and show the world that the country is a sound business prospect once again. The Tory leader has also stated that slashing the budget deficit is a key part to Britain’s recovery. A lot of this will lie with sorting out corporate health insurance UK and making sure company’s themselves are safe to go forward.

 

David Cameron himself plans to fly the flag for Britain across the world but insists there’s no easy way back up. One thing that needs done is to build a new model of economic growth led by enterprise and exports so we can get the economy back on its feet and also regain our faded reputation.

 

Mr Cameron claims that business is in his blood and his main aim is to get Britain back to where they belong, at the very top. He is also relishing the chance to recover our reputation abroad and believes the UK has the spirit and the determination to get back there.

How to discover the appropriate health insurance for your Small Business

Health insurance is a good option for anyone looking to cover their small business and/or employees against the consequences of illness and injury. The advantages of private insurance are obvious to both employer and employee for whom this might be a major incentive when added to your offer of a employment. From the employer’s point of viewhealth cover will prove invaluable in offsetting any losses should an employee be unable to work either on a temporary or permanent basis.

Small business health insurance comes in a number of basic models: 

Income protection – This effectively means your employees will be paid a regular wage when they are unable to work and earn the money due to illness or injury.

Private medical cover – Covers private as opposed to NHS medical care. This cover will be more expensive but means staff members will be treated quickly and conveniently thus minimising the disruption caused to their work and your business.

Critical illness insurance – can be combined with life insurance (below) or paid for separately. This type of cover is often expensive so it is a big commitment but it covers employees in the event of the diagnosis of a serious illness such as cancer, even if they can carry on working.

Life Insurance – This covers your business against the death of an employee. This pays out either a regular income or a lump sum and such cover is often charged at reasonable rates considering the potential value of the product.

Should you loose a key share holder or partner to illness or death you can pre-tailor your small business health insurance policy to protect you and your company against it. Such cover will provide both the business and the employee (or beneficiary in the event of death) with lump sums proportionate to the value of their share. This provides for the remaining partners/shareholders and allows them to buy out the share, as well as the family of the person no longer able to work for the company.

Employer’s Liability Insurance
It is worth noting that small business health insurance is an extremely useful option but not a necessity, whereas you are required by law to take out employers liability insurance if you employ anyone other than a member of your immediate family. The only other occasion when limited companies are not required to take out employer’s liability insurance is when there is only one employee and he/she owns at least 50% of company shares.

Essentially Employer’s liability insurance covers your business for any legal fees or compensation payments that have to be paid out to a member of your staff as a result of damage caused by your company.

Key Man Insurance
When taking out health insurance for small businesses in particular, it is worth considering ‘key man insurance’ as your company could well be reliant on one or two crucial members of staff. This type of insurance recognises such a possibility and will pay out a (usually pre-determined) lump sum to the business should you loose one of these people to illness, death, or with some policies; serious disease.

Pricey Insurance Cost’s For Small Business Owners

 

 

One of the biggest problems for small businesses is the cost of small business health insurance as the prices keep soaring through the roof! This is a problem for small business because it means they struggle to expand there empire because they just can’t afford the small business health care insurance prices being offered to them for insurance. With this problem owners are faced with the prospect of having to pay off workers instead of hiring more.

Small businesses are already at a disadvantage compared to bigger businesses because they don’t have as much money and can’t get the opportunity to expand there company due to the costs of insurance, the less workers the owner can get in means the more work he/she has to take on.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the proposed health bill says small firms with payrolls above $500,000 will contribute 72.5 percent of premium costs for single coverage and 65 percent of premiums for family coverage (regarding full-time employees). Small firms that fail to do so would face a penalty of 2% - 8% tax depending on how much your total payroll. Surely this would put any small company out of business if they can’t meet the required demands.

On the bigger picture and more realistic view the fact is if you are a small business owner and aren’t making bags of money there’s slim chances of you being able to afford insurance so that pretty much means you will have less workers  and there for extremely less cash than your bigger opposition.

So really if you don’t think you will be able to achieve this you’ve got to ask yourself is this really the right career path for you and are you confident enough that you will be able to meet the required targets.

 

 

 Small Businesses Coping With Mandatory Health Insurance

 

Provide employee health insurance, or pay a penalty? This is a threat that’s constantly worrying small business owners. And it might just move a step closer to reality in mid-July, as three of five Congressional committees approved new legislation to re do American health care — legislation that could expand health insurance coverage to 46 million uninsured workers, bringing a dear price to pay for business owners.

This is a serious problem staring every small business owner in the face. With times the way they are just now its hard enough never mind adding this for extra stress. Small company’s are barely breaking even never mind having to deal with a fixed penalty for not having small business health insurance.

Company’s with less than 25 workers are spared from annual penalties because it would require a company with 25 employees or more to pay the $375-750 penalty if the company refused to offer health coverage.

All over the country there’s less company’s offering small business medical insurance because they can’t afford to do so. A 2008 National Small Business Association poll found that just 38 percent of small companies could afford health plans at all, compared to 67 percent of small businesses in 1995.

 

 

Incase you are unaware, there is currently a huge debate going on in the USA regarding the reform of their healthcare system.

There is an excellent article in the Wall Street Journal outlining the main aspects of the debate. Essentially, small business owners in the US are worried that the proposed government aid and perks to cover their health insurance costs will not be adequate.

You can view the entire speech President Obama made to congress here.

What do small businesses within the UK feel about this debate:

• Would you be happy to provide your employees with health insurance?
• What could the government do to help you with the costs?

Let us know your thoughts!

Has your Business Health Insurance Been Effected?

 

With another ten deaths caused by swine flu in the past week, do companies need to take out extra cover for small business health insurance plans that will cover the cost of any shut down due to the pandemic?

The total number of people who have lost their lives to the disease now stands at 59. In any way that’s 59 to many but what can the British public do to protect themselves and what can companies do to protect their employees and their business as a hole?  The worst of the swine flu seems to have gone for now with a reported number of cases coming down the 11,000 mark from more than 100,000 on last month. The bad news is that a second wave is expected during the winter months and is expected to be more deadly than the first.

At this moment in time there is 263 people in hospital and 30 of them are in a critical condition. The second wave is expected to hit this winter and as a Precousion the government has said that there will be a vaccination program that is to get under way in autumn time.

Businesses are advised to contact in depended health insurance advisors for the best advice, for free offcourse.

These difficult economic times are a challenge for businesses on all sorts of levels. However, most experts agree that with careful management it is possible to negotiate difficult periods and come out stronger at the other end. One of the key areas that an business can increase its survival potential is to utilise its existing assets in a more effective manner - and its staff and by far the most valuable assets that any company has.

Human resource professionals are coninutally ponting out why offering staff incentives and benfits can have many positive effects across the board. Increasing morale and sense of wellbeing amongst existing staff will lead to increased productivity levels, whilst it will be easier to attract a higher calibre of candidate for any jobs that you have offered if they feel that they are going to become part of a company which nurtures and develops their career.

The Oracle Blog has an excellent post on some of the key principles that increase retention levels amongst staff, including:

- Education and training opportunities
- Flexible schedules
- Work environment
- Social environment
- Pay
- Health Insurance benefits
- Employee recognition programmes
- Paid time off
- Retirement programmes
- Telecommuting opportunities

We would like to ask our readers their thoughts and opinions on job perks.

• Do you get any from your company?
• Have you ever chosen one job over another due to the benefits?

We look forward to hearing from you.

The Department of European Health has said that up to 3 million people are putting themselves at risk by not renewing their European Health Insurance; the figure reveals that only around 300,000 people have renewed their card.

It is recommended that anyone traveling with the expired take out travel insurance to cover themselves against any misfortune whilst going on holiday or business, the old E111 was replaced in 2005 by the new EHIC card, should travelers fall ill or have an accident this card will help reduce costs to local healthcare treatments in other European counties.       

Sickies costing UK £1.6bn a year

A report due out soon has revealed that sickies from work are costing the UK economy £13.2 billion per year, it reveals that an average of 6.2 sick days are taken with absence of illness. It is believed that 1 in every 10 sick day’s taken is a sickie (a day off with no reason), the British Confederation Industry say that this average 1 day per worker a year is estimated to cost the UK economy 1.6 billion per year. A survey showed that private sector workers took an average of 5.8 days compared to the public sector workers who took an average of 9 days of per year on the sick. If the public sector matched the absence rate of the private sector it would save the economy a staggering £1.4 billion per year. These surveys and figures are all very well in showing how much sickies cost the economy but it should actually praise the workforce of Britain about how much we earn and not to mention the long hours we have to work in this country compared to other European nations. It also states that it costs the economy, but most companies have corporate or small business health insurance that covers the costs of any absences?

 

If your business has at least 2 and 50 employees then you would qualify and benefit from a group health plan.

Small business health insurance is a win win situation for you and your employees as it spreads the cost between all of its members reducing the premiums and provides more extensive coverage for anyone in the company.

There are also tax advantages to be had too, employees will save on their payroll taxes as employer contributions to a health care plan are usually 100% tax deductible.