Many people are unaware that if you have a Home Based Business, you may be eligible for guarantee issue Health Insurance. Depending on how your business is structured, LLC, Corporation, Partnership, Sole Prop, you can be insured under a Group Health Plan. This is guaranteed by Assembly Bill (AB) 1672 passed in 1992. It guarantees that businesses may obtain guarantee issue Health Insurance regardless of any pre-existing conditions of their employees.
Now, having said that……there are some guidelines and qualifiers that constitute what a “business” is. First of all, there have to be at least 2 persons; 1 owner and one employee, husband and wife, that qualify as “employees”, meaning working at least 30 hours a week, derive an income from the business, etc. We can even insure down to 1 person if the second person has coverage through another GROUP plan, is on Medicare, Medi-Cal, or Tri-Care.
When a business owner agrees to offer Employee Health Insurance or a Group Benefits plan for the business, they must offer it to ALL the eligible employees, AND contribute at least 50% of the SINGLE employee premium, or at least $100. For an employer that has a lot of employees, especially if they are making minimum wage, it can be a challenge to get employees to want to spend money on Employee Benefits. In addition to the contribution, the business MUST have the minimum participation amongst the employees. Usually that means at least 70% of the employees must sign up for the coverage. If they dropped the participation too low, the thought is, that only the sick people would sign up and the risk for the group would be too great.
Many people ask me what the differences are between Individual Health Insurance, Family Health Insurance and Group or Business Health Insurance. The answer is kinda complicated….basically they are the same kind of insurance. The difference is usually in the price, the variety of plans available, and the way the coverage is delivered. To get an indepth comparison, you would be better off to call us so we can explain it a little easier.
There are many California Employer Benefits available to Husband-Wife businesses that most people are unaware of. Other Group Benefits are available as well to these types of businesses such as Group Dental Insurance, Group Supplemental Coverage, Critical Illness Insurance, Disability Insurance, Group Vision Insurance, and many more.
Give us a call and we can help you navigate the crazy Health Insurance waters. Our services are totally free and when businesses sign up with Brauer Insurance Services LLC, they receive a bunch of cool Added Value Services…free!
Steve Brauer, Brauer Insurance Services LLC, 3150 Almaden Expwy, Suite 203, San Jose, CA 95118, (408) 421-5555