Group Health Insurance 

The most common type of Employee Benefit is Group Health Insurance.  Studies show that Employees value their Health Insurance benefits second only to Base Pay as a reason to select or keep a job.  Attractive features of Group Health Insurance include:

• Composite rates - blended rates that are the same for every Employee, no matter what the age, gender, or number of children in their family.

• Easy enrollment - Newly hired Employees will not be asked health questions in order to qualify to enroll in an existing group plan.  Also, Employees who previously waived can enroll again at Open Enrollment, and many times they can enroll mid-year.

• Better benefits - A richer, broader array of benefits, with higher levels are allowed on Group plans.

• Custom Design - Employers can semi-custom, or fully custom design their plans.

Group plans also have attractive Underwriting features, including:

• Guaranteed Issue - By law, a business with 2-50 Employees may not be denied Health Insurance coverage, due to adverse health conditions.  However, the premium may be rated up if there are known health conditions at the time of the original application.

• One-time Underwriting - An Insurance Company can only ask health questions at the time of the ORIGINAL application for the Group - not at renewal, and not when new Employees enroll. 

• Group blending for Underwriting purposes - The Underwriter looks at the group as a whole, not at one particular individual's health history.  That means that a group, with one sick Employee will probably not even see a rate-up for that health condition, if there are several healthy Employees to offset or "dilute" the cost of the health condition.  

• Simplified Underwriting - The amount of health questions asked on the application depends on the size of your group.  

  • Groups with 2-9 Employees are asked a number of health questions on the application.  Even so, the Underwriting for small groups is still favorable to the Underwriting for Individual / Family plans.

  • Groups with 10+ Employees have very few health questions on the Employee application, and the Underwriting is much easier.

  • Groups with 20+ Employees have "Employer Gatekeeper" applications (a few health questions are asked of the EMPLOYER only, to the best of the Employer's knowledge & belief), but there are NO health questions asked on the Employee applications.  

Last updated 2/2/2007