Buying Business Health Insurance When You Have Employees to Take Care Of

Let's say that you run a small business – a business with no more than 50 employees. It is possible that as an employer, you are quite anxious at this point about what Obamacare means for your business health insurance obligations. Well, there are changes, certainly. But they aren't anything to be anxious about. Let's look at the four main things that you need to keep in mind.

When all the provisions of Obamacare come into effect in the year 2014, the new law will demand that every state establish something that they call an insurance marketplace. Small businesses that need to buy business health insurance, need to go there and shop for the best plans.

Every small business health insurance purchase would need to go through the small business health options program. That would be the best way to go about it. You could even go to the government's healthcare website and take a look at the consumer health insurance comparison tool. You'd be able to look up all the small business health insurance options that there were.

Small businesses that employ fewer than 25 people and that don't pay more than $50,000 a year each, could qualify for a 35% tax credit. In fact, they could do that right now. Starting in the year 2014 though, those tax credits rise to 50%.

There is no law now that makes it mandatory for small businesses to offer their employees any insurance. But that's only for now. When the new health reform act comes into full effect in 2014, any small business that employs 50 people or more, will need to provide for them. They'll have to buy business health insurance and provide their employees with healthcare. If they don't, they will need to let their employees buy their own insurance, and then pay 60% of it.

What happens if they don't do this? Well, for every employee that they have who works more than 30 hours a week, the business has to pay $2000 in penalties. If they don't provide health insurance for them.

So what happens to businesses that don't have 50 employees? What if it's a coffee shop with only 8 employees or a tiny car repair business with 3 people?  Well, those kinds businesses don't have to offer health insurace. Those employees will need to find their own insurance.

Businesses, more and more, have begun to turn to wellness programs for help keeping their employees healthy. They figure that cheap preventive care could easily help them keep their employees healthier; and this could save them money on expensive care later on.

What they don't do is to offer incentives to their employees to take care of their health – to quit smoking, to exercise and so on. Businesses absolutely will get incentives under Obamacare though,to try to motivate their employees in these areas.