Small group health insurance

According to the statistics, about 60% of US residents, that have health insurance plans, have received them from their employers directly. It is called group health insurance plan. It is relatively cheap and most people in the states prefer to get one. There are advantages of obtaining a group health insurance and they look definite. As a matter of fact, very often employers, when advertising their vacancies and looking for employees, put down not only the information about the salary, but also the information about group health insurance they will provide. It is worth mentioning, that insurance companies get the majority of their profits by providing group health insurance. Group health insurance sometimes provides coverage for your family as well.

However, during the last years companies have significantly risen the cost of small group health insurance plans. They say, that the main reason for that is the increasing cost of medical service, treatment and drugs. To stop the workers’ resentment, companies decided to cut the price again, although together with the price they cut part of benefits, people got used to get before. The number of companies that propose full premium payments for their employees is getting smaller every year.

Depending on the number of employees signed up for a particular health insurance plan, insurance company tries to classify them into different groups. There are small groups, mid-size groups and large groups. The number of people, each group must contain is determined by state legislation or by the insurance company itself.

In most states, any company that employs more than 2 people, has right to organize a group health insurance. A company with about 50 employees is usually considered to be a small insurance group. Although, some states allow the, so-called, “groups of one”, where one person gets a group health insurance.

In 2006 American researches conducted a survey of companies that offered coverage on small group health insurance market. They found out there were about 650 000 small groups. About 80 % of small groups had fewer than 10 employees. National Association of Insurance Commissioners allows rates to be accustomed to the demographics of enrollees in group, but places restrictions on the degree of adjustments for health status, industry and other rating factors.

About 75 % of American residents say that belonging to a small group is much better than being a part of a large group. They prove it by saying that small groups usually get more advantages. However, the last trends show that Americans of all the insurance groups, no matter large or small, offer pretty much the same benefits, and that’s because of rising cost of insurance plans.

Well, this article proves once again, that the rising cost of medical service pushes people towards getting different kind of health insurance plans, however, insurance prices are growing rapidly too, and even small health insurance group plans can’t satisfy people completely (in terms of cost and quality) any more.