Should You Use Company Sponsored Insurance Plans?

One thing everyone needs is insurance. Things like health insurance are required to simply be able to deal with what life throws your way without the financial toll is too much for you to handle. However, choosing the right insurance plan can itself be a significant challenge. With so many choices available, it’s understandable some people will be rightly confused about how to make the right choice. One of these choices may be between company-sponsored insurance plans and private options. Below is what you should know.

Group Insurance Versus Individual Insurance

First, it’s good to know exactly what the term employer-sponsored plan refers to. In most cases, this refers to something known as group insurance. As the name implies, group insurance provides insurance coverage to the members of a specific group. In most cases, this is the employees of a company. The advantage for insurance companies, in this case, is the fact that the risk of the insurance company paying out for the coverage is spread among the members of the group. While some may use a lot of the coverage, many others may never even make a claim. There may be limits on how many members of the group must use the insurance. It may, for example, be 70 percent or higher. Alternatively, you can also choose to purchase individual insurance for yourself outside of the context of a group.

The Benefits of Group Insurance for Employees

You should know that most companies with large amounts of employees offer health insurance and other plans. In certain cases, doing so is mandated by the law. However, there are actually significant benefits for people to invest in this kind of group insurance. For one, since the insurance company’s risk is lowered by covering more people, the coverage in question can be offered to members of that group at lower rates than would be the case with individuals. This is the major benefit that group insurance has over individual insurance. In this way, both the employees and the insurance company benefit. The price of coverage can be lowered even more due to the fact the employer often pays for part of the premiums for the employees.

The coverage offered in an employee plan may also be superior to the plans that can be found on the open market. For one, additional forms of health insurance such as dental and vision coverage may be included in an employee plan. Private plans, apart from perhaps Medicaid-based plans or very expensive plans, probably do not include such generous coverage. Coverage for dental and vision issues will probably have to be purchased separately. According to Concord Group Insurance, such plans can also cover dependents. If you have a family, employer-provided insurance can be a great asset to have access to.

Benefits for Employers

The business may also benefit as well. For one, healthy employees that have access to insurance benefits are more likely to stick with that company for the long term. Employees that will have to go outside the company to pay for more expensive insurance may quickly start looking for employment elsewhere. With healthy employees that don’t have to worry about insurance, you’re likely to receive stronger performance and productivity from those workers. Overall, the ability to insure yourself and your family with health insurance and other plans has become an industry standard with most full-time employers.

There can also be other strong incentives for employers to offer health insurance to their employees. For one, the federal government offers strong tax incentives for employers to do so. A credit may be exchanged for the amount the company pays on employees’ healthcare premiums. In other cases, having insurance for employees can prevent the company from being sued. This is true of workers’ compensation insurance. If such insurance did not exist, the company would be sued every time a worker was injured on the job. The chances of the company being forced out of business by lawsuits would be greatly increased.

Overall, there are a lot of benefits for employees that choose employer-offered healthcare plans over private plans. This includes cheaper premiums, more generous benefits, and the ability to cover your entire family. With other benefits for both the insurance company and employers, it’s easy to understand why group insurance is the right choice for all parties involved.