You Have The Power to Keep Yourself, Your Staff, and Your Family Covered
While electricians may know all there is to know about keeping the power flowing and the lights on, they may not have the same expertise when it comes to health insurance for electricians.
Fortunately, small electrical business owners and independent electricians don’t need to go it alone when trying to figure out how to cover their own healthcare needs and those of their workforce. At Preferred Insurance in Colorado, our skilled independent health insurance brokers help electricians and other small businesses in Colorado get the best health insurance coverage at the most affordable prices. If group health insurance for your small electrical business tops your to-do list, we can help you get the job done.
How Does Health Insurance for Electricians Work?
Health insurance carriers in Colorado, such as Aetna, Anthem, KaiserPermanente, and others, offer multiple plan options specifically designed for smaller businesses’ needs and budgets. Here’s how the process works.
Your electrical business signs up and purchases health insurance for the “group,” which consists of your employees and their dependents. You may choose only to cover full-time employees or, as more companies are doing, you can provide coverage to any part-time employees as well.
Related: Are Small Businesses in Colorado Required to Provide Health Insurance for Dependents?
An electrical business that enrolls in a group health insurance plan typically pays the health insurance carrier the full fee for the coverage while also deducting contributions from the paychecks of employees who participate in the program. By deducting the premium costs from an employee’s pay before calculating state and federal tax obligations, you can lower the amount of your employees’ taxable income and increase the amount of their take-home pay every pay period. Increasing pay will make your electricians – and you – feel even better about getting coverage.
How Small Is Too Small for Health Insurance Coverage?
Many electricians who run their own businesses may presume they’re too small or have too few employees to qualify for group coverage. But even if your electrical business has just one full-time employee, it will likely be eligible for group health insurance coverage so long as that employee works at least 30 hours per week and is not an independent contractor, not your spouse or another relative, and not a part-owner or business partner of your company.
If, however, you are self-employed and have no employees (even if you engage electricians as independent contractors from time to time), group health insurance is probably not an option. You can, however, work with Preferred Insurance to find individual and family health insurance coverage that fits your needs.
Isn’t Health Insurance Too Expensive for a Small Electrical Company?
Companies with fewer than 50 full-time employees are under no obligation to offer their employees health insurance coverage. Knowing that they don’t have to do so, many small electrical business owners don’t even consider offering group health insurance, believing they can’t afford it. In reality, electrical companies can reap significant tax savings that can reduce their costs and make it that much easier and affordable to cover their workforce.
Related: Quick Guide to Estimate Employee Health Insurance Cost in Colorado
All health insurance-related expenses paid by business owners are 100 percent tax-deductible. Additionally, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) may provide your small electrical business with healthcare tax credits of up to 50 percent of its premium expenses during any two-year period.
Under IRS rules, your electrical company can generally claim the small business health care tax credit if it:
- Has fewer than 25 full-time equivalent employees;
- Pays average wages of less than $50,000 a year per full-time equivalent employee (indexed every year for inflation);
- Offers a qualified health plan to employees through a Small Business Health Options Program Marketplace (or qualifies for a limited exception to this requirement);
- Covers at least 50 percent of the cost of employee-only health care coverage for each employee.
As with anything tax-related, you should consult with both an experienced group health insurance broker and tax professional to understand how your health insurance program impacts your electrical company’s tax obligations.
Preferred Insurance: Securing The Best Health Insurance for Electricians and Small Businesses Throughout Colorado
As an experienced Colorado Springs business health insurance broker, Preferred Insurance works closely with electricians and small electrical companies to develop and implement group health insurance programs that make sense and make wellness a priority. Our knowledgeable and accessible representatives are here to answer your questions and provide solutions that can keep you and your workforce safe and healthy. We are a locally owned and operated group health insurance broker that offers free quotes in less than 48 hours.
Call Preferred Insurance today to schedule a free consultation about your small business health insurance needs.
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