Our mission is simply to bring you the best products and value we possibly can.  Our business is helping people help themselves.  In addition to the exclusive and unmatched health, accident, and life insurance products we offer, we partner with organizations that can bring additional and exceptional value to our clients who are primarily small businesses, individuals, and the self-employed.

As a small business owner with less than 50 full-time equivalent employees you are not subject to the rules and penalties that are part of Healthcare Reform in 2014 - 2015.  If you do offer group health insurance, you may qualify for a tax rebate by purchasing your coverage through SHOP, the exchange marketplace for small businesses.  Before you do however, there is a very important, but not well publicized glitch in the Healthcare Reform law of which you must be aware. 

If you offer health care coverage to your employees and subsidize at least half of the employee-only coverage, but do not subsidize the dependents of the employee, you are essentially preventing the family members of your employees from qualifying for premium tax credits on the healthcare exchanges in 2014.  The IRS has ruled that only the employee-only portion of the premium must meet the 9.5% of income affordability test, not the family premium, which we all know is much higher because there is usually no employer subsidy for the dependents.

The end result of your generosity to your employees may ultimately cause their family to suffer without affordable health insurance, simply because you offer the employee "affordable" health care coverage.  So what can you do?  Plenty!

Get out of the health insurance business altogether.  Using the design of the SHOP program (but not the SHOP program itself), which essentially offers you an HRA (health reimbursement arrangement) and an array of individual plans, you set the amount of money you want to contribute monthly to your employees and they use the money to purchase their own coverage.   The reason you cannot use the SHOP program is because it is considered a qualified health plan (QHP) and the same rules apply to the family members as if you offered a group health plan.

You can offer a stand alone HRA, not considered a QHP, and thereby not only contribute towards health coverage for your employees, but ensure that their dependents will still have access to the federal tax credits they qualify for, based on their family income.  A win/win solution for everyone.

For more information or to learn more about HRA's click here:  HRA's - Health Remibursement Arrangements.