Health Insurance Comparisons

In the state of California, when you go to purchase health insurance, there are many different coverage plans that are will be available to you.  If you are single and live alone, you can purchase an individual plan.  If you are married or have a family, you can purchase a family insurance plan.  If you are self employed or own a small business, you can purchase a group health insurance plan.  There are a lot of differences between all of these plans that will affect things like how much you will have to pay in premiums and what the limit is for your total amount of coverage.  Here are some of the differences between California small group health insurance plans and individual insurance plans.

In California, when you own a small business and want to get health insurance coverage for both yourself and your employees, there are state laws on the books that say insurance companies must provide this coverage to you.  California state law AB1672 says that as long as you meet all of these requirements, then you cannot be denied when trying to get a California small group health insurance plan.  These requirements state that your business must be up and running for longer than two months, you must pay all of your premiums, you must offer coverage to all of your employees who are eligible, you must meet the requirements of the insurer that deals with your contribution and the participation of your employees, and you cannot have ever committed some type of insurance fraud.  As long as you meet these few guidelines, you will be given access to a small group plan.

Regarding an individual health insurance plan, there is no such law in California that states you must be granted insurance coverage.  This is just one of the many benefits of obtaining a California small group health insurance plan rather than getting an individual insurance plan.

Another major difference between obtaining a California small group health insurance plan and an individual plan is the way in which your monthly premiums will be decided.  With an individual insurance plan, you will have to undergo extensive medical tests and examinations.  Your premiums will mostly be based on how healthy or unhealthy you are.  With a small group plan, your premiums are not based upon your own medical history.  Since there are more people in your group pool to spread out the risk a little bit, your premiums will be based more on things like age and gender.