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Will Health Insurance Have a Negative Impact on Your Small Business?

Sarah Brooks

January 19, 2015

For small businesses with five employees or less, roughly half are offering health insurance. For those with fewer than 500 employees, 70 percent are offering health insurance, according to the National Small Business Association.

The main reason for the 30 percent of other small businesses that aren't providing insurance for their employees is cost.

Health insurance is expensive, with the average monthly premium being more than $1,100 per employee.

The Benefits Do Exist

There are some major benefits to providing health insurance to employees, though.

For starters, you will stand out among your competitors and attract better candidates.

Employees nowadays rank good health insurance just as high, if not higher, than the salary package. Individuals and those with families know just how important it is to be properly insured.

In turn, you are less likely to have high turnover at your business because employees do not want to lose their health insurance coverage.

Another advantage of offering health insurance to your employees is you'll have more productive, healthier employees.

People that are uninsured go without seeing the doctor regularly and most likely will not go even if they are severely ill. This may cause them to miss too many days at work and therefore be much less productive. Insured employees equal healthy, productive employees.

Do Your Research

The article "5 Factors to consider when comparing health insurance plans" states that when looking for the best coverage, you should consider the price, the details of the coverage, access to doctors, what types of insurance are available and what optional coverage you can get.

As a small business owner, it's in your best interest to research a variety of health insurance companies to see which one will best suite your needs.

Unfortunately, small businesses overall are negatively impacted by Obamacare due to the rising health care costs.

Just six years ago, in 2009, small businesses paid less than $600 per month per employee for health insurance, according to the National Small Business Association.

Due to the increased costs, small businesses either need to increase their profits, reduce their employees, not offer health insurance or find some other way to afford this added expense - such as offering part-time hours to employees that are currently full-time.

This harsh impact is very disappointing to both small businesses and the economy, as small businesses provide millions upon millions of jobs each year.

Originally, Obamacare was expected to reduce health insurance costs, but as we've seen over recent years, costs are actually increasing.

The few advantages of Obamacare's effect on small businesses includes tax breaks each year for companies that provide health insurance to employees and possibly better coverage to those employees that are insured under their companies.

Also, companies with less than 50 employees are not required to provide insurance to employees, so if your small business really cannot afford, there is no law stating you have to provide it.

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