Health Insurance For Small Business
SHOP – Small Business Health Options Program
Are you a business owner with 50 or less full time employees? Then you qualify to apply on the SHOP site for health insurance for your employees.
If your business has less than 25 employees, you might qualify for the Small Business Tax Credit. To get this credit, you must pay at least 50% of your employees health care insurance premiums.
You might get up to 50% of tax credit for your share of the premiums. Your employess must make less than $50,000 on the average to qualify.
This tax credit is even better for employers having less than 10 employees making on an average $10,000 or less. You get a bigger credit the smaller the business is.
The Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) is simply a program from healthcare.gov making it easier to get health insurance policies for any American small business.
Healthcare Gov Small Business Health Insurance in the year 2015 – the SHOP Marketplace is open to employers with 50 or less full time workers. The benefits of using SHOP include:
- You control the coverage you offer and how much you pay toward employee premiums.
- You can compare health plans online on an apples-to-apples basis, which helps you make a decision that’s right for your business.
- You may qualify for a small business health care tax credit worth up to 50% of your premium costs. You can still deduct from your taxes the rest of your premium costs not covered by the tax credit. Beginning 2014 the tax credit is available only for plans purchased through SHOP.
(Source: healthcare.gov)
Keep in mind that under current law, no employers are required to provide or offer health insurance. It is still an option. If you do decide to offer health insurance to your employees, in 2014 there are some major changes happening. Insurance comapnies cannot turn down anyone or their family members based on their health status. As many of us, we have pre-existing conditions. That’s not a problem any more.
In addition, insurance plans can’t set higher premiums for women, or claim a higher group premium for employees with higher cost of medical treatments.
What if I have a current health insurance plan for my employees?
You can keep it, but you won’t qualify for the new tax credits. That’s only available if the insurance is applied for through SHOP.
I have a pretty good insurance broker….
You can use your insurance broker to arrange a employee health care policy thru SHOP. You will not pay more. Brokers are paid by the insurance companies.
I’m Self Employed..
If you are a sole proprietor, and have no employees – you are not a “small business”, you are an individual and can apply through the regular
Health Insurance Marketplace. Even if you hire the odd contractor to work with you – you are still coonsidered an individual under this plan.
HealthCare Gov | Small Business Health Insurance | SHOP – Small Business Health Options Program