The Cost of Health Insurance for SMEs

It is often stated that the cost of private health insurance for small to medium businesses is far to high to justify the expenditure when overheads are so tight. But this is to underestimate everything that healthcare provision adds  to a company of any size.

Yes, in the short term health insurance is yet another overhead, and yes things can be tight for small and local businesses, but it is still a question of scale, and all businesses in the end face the same problems, just that sometimes it is slightly more acute the smaller the business if key members of staff are unable to work for reasons of illness or accident. Let us face the facts that the bigger the business, the larger the staff, the more chance of overlap in particular roles, therefore the easier it is for people to cover for absenses: large companies always have a corporate health plan, and if it makes sense for them it makes more sense for a smaller business that has necessarily more limited resources to draw upon.

A healthcare insurance policy not only covers the costs of medical treatment but also affords the employer the cost of employing temporary staff in the meantime, and besides, the insurance does not have to be that expensive if you have a thorough look around.

2011 Healthcare Predictions

2011 could see costs in healthcare increase due to budget restructuring in the NHS by the coalition government. This is expected to have an huge impact on the whole healthcare sector.

Employers face extra costs including increased corporate health insurance premium rates, an increase in tax and a National Insurance cost increase.

Businesses will need to either stump up the extra costs or find new ways to help make costs more manageable. They could either switch to a healthcare provider that offers them a more affordable deal or offer a different premium to employees that may offer less benefits but might allow them to contribute to if any added benefits are needed.