Health insurance bennies

[evo]

Ok to start off I'm structured as a LLC as a employee. My wife was recently diagnosed with lyme's and we are having some bills starting to pile up. We currently are "health share" members, but trying to get decent coverage is a pain in the butt. They tend to pay only a portion then we get billed for the rest.

I'm currently looking at putting my wife on payroll, then offering group health coverage. I only have one employee (other than myself and wife). She could be a legit employee, but we haven't had her on the books as its a shared income house.

I am completely clueless on this, but I just got off the phone with a provider and they are talking about group plans for about $440 per head, $1500 deductible, $4500 out of pocket cap. It sounds like a pretty solid deal and good plan which covers quite a bit. So a total of three heads.

A few years ago we had a shit plan which 'covered' her and I, for $550, $7000 deductible huge co-pays. This was not a group plan, but a personal plan. So I'm gathering that there are some perks to offering company health insurance. Management can have 100% coverage, hourly employees can have 75% with 25% employee contribution. Insurance is cheaper than wages if factored due to lack of payroll tax. It comes off the top from the company lowering the tax burden. IF my wife and I were to buy a personal plan, it would be less coverage, and to take the $ out of the business as payroll the reality is a 1.3 X multiplier due to payroll tax cost.

Am I missing anything? We need a good plan, and need it now. Is it better for us to no offer company bennies and just buy insurance ourselves?

 

[southsoundtree]

Interested to hear about insurance.

Sorry to hear about her Lyme condition. Any idea where she got it?

 

[cerviarborist]

As part of your research of comparable market offerings, you might want to go through https://www.healthcare.gov. Regardless of whether you're able to find subsidized coverage, they do have a pretty good marketplace comparison tool with a comprehensive list of insurers offering coverage, along with limits, exclusions, premium amounts and other information to help you arrive at an informed decision.

 

[Gorman]

Ok to start off I'm structured as a LLC as a employee. My wife was recently diagnosed with lyme's and we are having some bills starting to pile up. We currently are "health share" members, but trying to get decent coverage is a pain in the butt. They tend to pay only a portion then we get billed for the rest.

I'm currently looking at putting my wife on payroll, then offering group health coverage. I only have one employee (other than myself and wife). She could be a legit employee, but we haven't had her on the books as its a shared income house.

I am completely clueless on this, but I just got off the phone with a provider and they are talking about group plans for about $440 per head, $1500 deductible, $4500 out of pocket cap. It sounds like a pretty solid deal and good plan which covers quite a bit. So a total of three heads.

A few years ago we had a shit plan which 'covered' her and I, for $550, $7000 deductible huge co-pays. This was not a group plan, but a personal plan. So I'm gathering that there are some perks to offering company health insurance. Management can have 100% coverage, hourly employees can have 75% with 25% employee contribution. Insurance is cheaper than wages if factored due to lack of payroll tax. It comes off the top from the company lowering the tax burden. IF my wife and I were to buy a personal plan, it would be less coverage, and to take the $ out of the business as payroll the reality is a 1.3 X multiplier due to payroll tax cost.

Am I missing anything? We need a good plan, and need it now. Is it better for us to no offer company bennies and just buy insurance ourselves?

What company did you talk to? Seems too cheap to be true.

 

[evo]

Interested to hear about insurance.

Sorry to hear about her Lyme condition. Any idea where she got it?

The only tick bites she has had are 3 here locally. And one on the Oregon coast. But the symptoms started pretty much after the bite here

 

[Chaplain242]

Prayers your wife recovers soon.

 

[OasisTree]

The only tick bites she has had are 3 here locally. And one on the Oregon coast. But the symptoms started pretty much after the bite here

Sorry to hear! We have been on that journey for the last 8 months, and it still isn't over.

 

[evo]

Thanks guys, this basically started due to my wife getting on a waiting list for a lyme’s specialist. The main issue is that they don’t accept out health coverage. The insurance they do accept isn’t offered on our county, the only way to get it is for it to be offered via an employer.
I am my employer so here I am at my present cross roads. I’d like to offer they guy who works for me some sort of health insurance, even though I wasn’t prepared to do it in this way or at this time. Granted he’s fairly new so I can put him on a 6-12month hold, exclude him (really rather not), and or have him cover 25%.
My wife isn’t on payroll but I can take a pay cut, and put her on.
So back to it, am I better off paying a little less out of pocket, for a plan that might be a little worse? Or should the business take the hit, but also the write off?

 

[evo]

Sorry to hear! We have been on that journey for the last 8 months, and it still isn't over.

We don’t know when it began, if it occurred at the more recent bite, it was about 26 months ago. Hardcore symptoms kicked in last August, postpartum. So some of the symptoms may have been masked after the birth? Who really knows for us. The diagnosis came in after taking a test for it the second time, when everything else wasn’t coming back positive.