10 Ways Health Insurance Looks Different for Small Businesses

When it comes to health insurance, all businesses are not created alike. What works for one company isn’t necessarily the right fit for another. The needs of one particular organization and its employees may vary considerably from the demands of a different business and its workforce.

This is all the more true when it comes to businesses of varying sizes. A recent study by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation identified 10 major differences between the health insurance offerings of small (3 to 199 employees) vs. large (199+) employers. Here they are…

1. Only 56{d044ab8acbff62f209a116f8142e303cb886f535b0fcf58cb82cde7cb327d3c9} of small businesses offer health insurance vs. 98{d044ab8acbff62f209a116f8142e303cb886f535b0fcf58cb82cde7cb327d3c9} of large firms.
2. Of the small businesses who do not offer it, 41{d044ab8acbff62f209a116f8142e303cb886f535b0fcf58cb82cde7cb327d3c9} say it’s too costly of an expense.
3. Employees of small businesses often have to pay a larger share of premiums and other shared costs.
4. Only 45{d044ab8acbff62f209a116f8142e303cb886f535b0fcf58cb82cde7cb327d3c9} of small business workers are covered by their company’s health plan vs. 63{d044ab8acbff62f209a116f8142e303cb886f535b0fcf58cb82cde7cb327d3c9} at large firms.
5. More small businesses have waiting periods for enrollment compared to larger employers.
6. Those employed by small firms pay lower average premiums ($16,625 for family coverage) than those employed by large firms ($17,938).
7. This trend is echoed in the amounts small vs. large company employees pay for single coverage.
8. Small business employees in western U.S. states pay less on average than the rest of the country.
9. Employees of both small and large businesses tend to choose Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) plans over other options.
10. More small firms than large ones are likely to outsource the task of administering their health plan coverage.