Group health insurance

[sparky 134]

I am a small, two man shop. My employee has asked about employer provided health insurance so I am starting to explore what's available.

How many of the other small contractors here provide health insurance ? If you do, which carrier are you using ? Are you picking up the entire bill or a portion ?

I would like to provide the insurance at no cost to my employee but as a two man shop there's not a lot of margin for additional costs. Not trying to sound cheap, just cost conscious.

 

[ishium 80439]

I am in a very similiar circumstance and just started looking into this myself. I don't have any valid input on this right now but should in the coming days. Hopefully someone who has been down this road already will post and cut short our homework, but when I find out anything substantive I will post it.

 

[rexowner]

I was running a small shop a few years ago, and I think
Costco in our area had coverage that was reasonable;
this is going to vary by state (I am in CA). I ended up
going through a regular insurance broker because the plan
was better. I was told by a broker (don't know for sure
this is true) that all brokers sell health insurance at the
same price. It was a bit of a confusing hassle but
good to get taken care of. We covered 100% of the
cost. We were Pacificare, but I think that might be CA specific.

 

[zog]

We are doing that now for one of our new shops, insurance broker is the way to go, no cost to you, the broker is paid by the insurance companies.

 

[bbaumer]

Not sure about covering employees but I am self-employed and buy health insurance for myself and my family through a broker.

I got quotes from him for a few different companies. Celtic, Golden Rule, Americare or something like that, etc.

He prices were almost exactly the same as what I could look up myself at ehealthinsurance.com so it leads me to believe they are paid by the insurance company, not by me as was suggested.

 

[teco]

In Mass we have the Masachusetts electrical Contractors Association. I belong to them and they have helped somewhat with health insurance but it runs at least 1000.00 per month for a family plan. They lobby the insurers in the area and get small discounts. Maybe you have something like that in your area. I dont know how you can pick up that cost without some help from your employee for just two men.