Is Employee Health Insurance Changing for Your Small Business?

The words Obamacare and health insurance can strike fear (or at least confusion) into the hearts of small business owners.

It can be tough to sort through what you need to know about offering health insurance to your employees.

What's coming up in 2015? Is health insurance required for your business? How do you know the best policies to offer and what your plans should entail? How much input should your employees have, if any?

Let's take a look at some of these questions....

Do I need to offer health insurance to my small business employees?

It depends on the size of your company.

With Obamacare, it is required that if you have 50 or more full time employees (or full time equivalent, like two employees who both work 20 hours a week equal one employee), you do need to offer health insurance plans or else you may be fined per employee.

Because requirements for group health insurance plans by company size are not always cut and dry, if you have a lot of part time workers or seasonal workers, you may have to do some math with hours worked to figure this out.

Most small business employee numbers do fall well under this limit, so insurance may not be a requirement for you.

How much coverage should you offer?

This is up to you and you may find you have lots of options.

Things like deductibles, co-pays and co-insurance, emergency room visits, preventative care visits and more are all variables that each company looks at differently.

You'll have to decide some things on upfront costs, what the company will cover and if you want to offer benefits for spouses, domestic partners and dependents. Do your research and find the best fit for your company and employees.

Should your employees have input?

That is up to you, but often it works best if you figure all the legwork out (take situations into account), and then offer the plan.

Why should you offer health coverage if you don't have to?

Yes, it is a cost to you to offer benefits, but it can make your company more attractive and offer a loyalty where your employees will stay with you.

The preventative care can help keep up the health of your professional family and you will gain more in productivity and time spent working. You also may qualify for some tax benefits which can offset some of the cost.

Some of the new health care regulations are clear under Obamacare, some, well, they just aren't.

Do some research; know the stipulations and how they play out regarding the size of your company and offer what you think is best for you, your company, your employees and the rules and regulations coming into place.

Healthcare may seem like a puzzle, but once all the pieces are laid out, it will come together.