Low Cost Health Insurance in Atlanta

By Offering Low Cost Health Insurance, Atlanta Business Owners Can Save More Than If They Cut Benefits Altogether.

Low cost health insurance in Atlanta is not only important to individuals, but to business owners as well.  As times get tough, people are feeling the financial pinch when it comes to health care.  Small business owners in Atlanta are feeling it, too, so much so that many of them are cutting out health insurance benefits for their employees in an effort to save money and stay afloat. 

The problem with this strategy is that when good employees lose their health insurance benefits, they start looking for somewhere else to work.  The small business is then strapped with the cost of hiring someone to take their place and train them.  If these business owners would take a look at the cost of cutting costs, they might decide that it is better to look for cheap health insurance plans to offer their employees.

Employers typically cover about 50% of the cost of health insurance for their employees.  This can become quite expensive as more employees are hired on.  And the cost of health insurance seems to go up each year, and not by a few pennies, either.  Employers just can’t afford to pay out an additional $50 or $100 per employee each month to cover their share of the health insurance plans. 

Health insurance isn’t cheap, and this is why many employers are choosing to drop insurance altogether.  A recent survey conducted by a payroll company concluded that 56% of small businesses in Atlanta are not even offering cheap cost health insurance benefits to their employees.  This is up more than 30% from last year’s numbers.

Low cost health insurance in Atlanta may not be easy to find, but it is doable.  Employers can choose from several different types of low cost health insurance to save money for themselves and for their employees.  Many employers are looking at HSA (Health Savings Account) plans to offer their employers.  This is an affordable health insurance option that allows employees to put money into a pre-tax savings account to be used for medical expenses only.  Couple that with high deductible, low cost health insurance, and Atlanta small business owners might be able to see daylight again. 

The HSA can be used to pay the higher deductibles, as well as prescription deductibles. Many employers add a small percentage to the HSA accounts as well, but this is not a necessity.  However, for recruiting and retention purposes, many small business owners agree that the best employees are found by offering better benefits, even if the pay rate is a little lower.  By finding low cost health insurance, Atlanta small business owners are able to offset their portions of the cheap health insurance by paying just a little less per hour to employees. 

Employees don’t mind earning a little less per hour if they are made aware at the time of hiring the fact that low cost health insurance benefits are part of their total salary package.  It is up to the hiring managers of the small businesses to present the package in a way that it is desirable to potential employees.  This is even more of a pull for recruits if their portion of the health insurance plan is affordable.

Another reason why Georgia business owners should look for low cost health insurance rather than cut out insurance benefits completely is that their worker’s comp insurance will rise as a result.  Worker’s compensation insurance is a necessary cost to every employer.  They pay into it whether or not they offer health insurance to their employees.  If they can offer even a low cost health insurance, Atlanta worker’ comp insurance costs will be less.

One option that works well for business owners, and that employees appreciate, is to offer several low cost health insurance options for employees to choose from.  Employers can offer high deductible, lower cost health insurance plan, a low deductible plan that costs a little more, and an HSA plan to absorb the additional costs of the more affordable health insurance route. 

Cutting health insurance benefits is certainly one way to save money for small business owners in Atlanta, but having a happy team of employees is more productive and the business will profit from the higher productivity.  It really doesn’t save money in the long run to cut benefits in the state of Georgia.  It can definitely save money to find low cost health insurance for Atlanta employees.