Individual health plan enrollment is up in California! Many small businesses in California choose to let their employees get coverage through California’s health marketplace, Covered California. With the rising cost of group health plans it is both cost effective for employees and employers to allow individuals to choose a plan from the marketplace.
Many of the individuals will not only be able to choose a plan of their choice away from the typical A, B, or C choice a group plan offers, but there is also a possibility to receive a tax subsidy to help with the cost. The ACA mandates that any company over fifty employees must provide healthcare for their employees, but no such mandate is currently in place for smaller companies. Although, many small business’s still offer health plans this year the numbers show a drastic cut to group plans and a rise in individual health plan enrollment allowing employees a freedom of choice.
An article on Biz Journals stated that small business health plans declined 11 percent in 2014 while the individual market surged 47 percent. With the rise of group health premiums for small companies many businesses are looking for alternative options to provide benefits. If you are a small business owner have you looked at the possible cost savings moving to a defined contribution model could give you?