Small Business Owners: With a Limited-Time Waiver, You Can Offer a Group Health Insurance Plan for Your Team at No Cost to You

If you’re a small business owner and you’ve been waiting to offer a group health plan, now might be the perfect time. Until December 15th, the U.S. government has waived the Minimum Participation Rate (MPR) requirement as well as the minimum contribution requirement. This temporary waiver aims to make it easier and more affordable for employers with 2 to 50 employees to get health insurance coverage for their team.

In Utah, the Minimum Participation Rate (MPR) is generally 75%, which means that without this waiver, 75% of your eligible employees would have to enroll in a health insurance plan you are providing for you to offer insurance. But here’s how the waiver helps. Even if you have 50 employees, with the waiver, you would only need two employees who wanted to sign up for health insurance to make it work.

During the rest of the year, employers are required to pay for a certain portion of their employees’ health insurance. During the waiver period, employees can configure the arrangement so that each employee pays 100% of the cost for their own health insurance. So, even if in the past providing health insurance to your employees seemed out of reach, during this special window it might just be possible.

If your company wants to take advantage of this special waiver, it’s important to understand that it takes a few weeks for a health insurance agent or broker to help you explore plans, choose a plan, enroll in the plan, and get all the paperwork signed and accepted by the carrier. Since all paperwork must be signed and accepted by December 15, 2024 (with coverage beginning January 1, 2025), you should book an appointment with an agent now.

Want to see which plans might best fit your needs? Click here to schedule an appointment with an Ark Insurance Solutions agent.