Being employed certainly comes with a lot of perks aside from the pay that you get every month. Some companies offer a lot of other things that will make you want to stay with them. You can get free parking, gasoline allowance, and reimbursements, a great system of overtime pay and generous allowances and leaves when you have to. But the single most important perk that you should consider to be better than all these other ones mentioned should definitely be the kind of health insurance there is that your company offers. Health insurance is important because you want to make sure that your company knows you are fit and in the pink of health to work.
This is no wonder why so many companies are moving mountains left and right in order to find some sort of health insurance that is attractive enough to entice the best employees yet affordable enough for the company to actually be able to afford it. Millions are spent each year on company insurance and with great reason, too. But how about those people who belong in the small business sector? Clearly, their annual revenues might not be as spectacular as the ones made by the people from big corporations and snazzy conglomerates – but at the same time, they also know they have to exert their maximum effort in protecting their employees as well. This is where the phenomenon of group insurance comes in.
Group Health Insurance: Why It Became a Necessary Option
For most people, the concept of insurance is seen at the individual level. But with the rise of the cottage industry and the world coming back from the effects of some business and financial crisis, people began seeing the need for a way to have insurance without so many premiums to think of. Sometimes, these group insurance schemes are called small business group health insurance. It was pretty much designed as a reaction to the ever-increasing costs of health insurance and the industry’s answer to the need of small business groups to provide the same benefits sans the hefty price tag.
Basically, it is pretty much like getting a group discount for a company’s health insurance coverage. You get together a group of people and come up with the minimum amount needed to qualify for the discount. In effect, everyone will be paying smaller premiums but still get the entire range of health insurance services that they deserve.
A Wide Range of Packages and Policies
If you have been in the work place for quite some time now, you may have encountered such a policy in several companies. Each small business group will offer their own unique package of health insurance but most of the time their common denominator is that they are able to present such a figure to you thanks to the benefits they get from the group health insurance package. This is especially important because it is the benefits themselves that act as a magnet to draw in the skilled and top notch employees into your companies.
If a particular company is able to provide a really good salary package with lots of attractive benefits and topped off with an amazing health insurance policy, they will be able to reel in the best fish to their pond. It will be an offer that is too hard to pass up. And companies know this, because it is through the word of mouth of these people about such benefits that they get the best employees around. And thanks to group health insurance, they can achieve this.
Group Health Insurance: Who Pays for What?
In essence and in principle, the health insurance is split into two paid for by the employer and the employee as well. This practice is long-standing and has always been the foundation for the policies concerning employee rights and due needs. It is also the same for group health insurance – that each part will do his or her share in contributing to the premium. The great thing about this, of course, is that with the presence of a group health insurance both sides of the fence will pay a whole lot less. Of course, this is provided that the company is able to meet the required number of employees signing up for the insurance in order to get the discount.
This will probably explain why some companies are really aggressive when it comes to stressing the point of how important a group insurance really is. To them, the large picture is that of getting to round up the numbers necessary to get the discount. But to you, it ought to be two-fold – in the sense that one, you want to protect yourself and two, you want the same protection extended to your fellow employees so you do your part and sign up for this kind of health insurance. Then again, the discussion on exactly how much percentage both sides will shoulder will be entirely dependent on the company and the meeting with the employees regarding this matter – so do not try to expect that everything will be fifty-fifty in cost or sixty-forty in favor of you.
Yes, You DO Get the Benefits You Deserve
Most group insurance benefits run the gamut of benefits similar to that of individual ones. Your company, if they install a group insurance policy in the workplace, will be able to offer you a wide range of health insurance benefits which you can enjoy. You can get dental insurance from this and be given the benefit of two oral prophylaxes a year, plus free check up and any sort of dental-rays to serve as your records. You can get your basic comprehensive check-up which is done once a year and it will include blood tests, physical check up, x-rays and the usual pee-in-a-cup and stool-in-a-cup test. If you are a woman employee, you can find this very useful when it comes to check-ups with your ob gyne.
Regular six months pap smears are usually covered and if you are due for a mammogram this year then that is most likely to be included as well. Some group insurance is even good enough to include a pediatrician in the ranks so you can bring your child under the age of 12 to his or her regular check-up. What are usually excluded in your health insurance, however, are the ones wherein you have a life threatening disease or sickness.
Group insurance is group insurance, but when one member of the group is found to have some sort of sickness he may not be able to recover from then there are some limitations to that kind of benefit that is given to him. In this example, we are able to draw the line between group mandated benefits and individual benefits in the sense that for as long as you pass the requirements of the health insurance you are covered based on their terms even if the other members of your team are unable to comply.
If you are in some sort of health emergency – like for example you figured in an accident or ended up having an asthma attack while working in the office – chances are your group health insurance will cover it as well. The group insurance also covers some aspects of accident insurance and in this way, their employees receive the financial assistance they deserve during unpredictable situations such as the ones cited and more. Just like the regular health insurance, the group health insurance will cover any sort of medical and/or professional fees that you might incur during the illness or the accident. The ambulance fee is covered, the emergency room is covered and you can be well on your way to recovery knowing that your group health insurance is taking good care of it all.
Obviously, one can tell that having a group health insurance is definitely several times better than an individual health insurance – which can be very costly. You just need to make sure that your company has a very good health insurance plan on their hands, even if it is done in a group manner. You should expect being guaranteed the reception of benefits at only a fraction of the original cost. There are some times wherein the companies or the small businesses end up offering plans to the employees and having the latter choose how they can customize the plan to their own needs.
These policies are applied by the employer to the insurance company with the expectation that they will be responsible for paying the premium. There are some specified benefits to group health insurance which you can pay for on a kind of pre-tax benefit, of course. The next expenses of the employee as the contribution to the group health insurance coverage, plus some other types of benefits are greatly reduced in the end. For most employees, the group health insurance is pretty much the second best thing after the monetary compensation they get from the company. With this, everyone is happy and everyone will be working productively with the knowledge that they are covered.