Group Insurance Canada - Three Key Options For Canadian Businesses!

You may have heard that the figure of insurers in the Canadian marketplace has declined over the years. This is true ... sort of. The conventional life insurance companies have consolidated their group operations into just a few key players. But there are some innovative Group Health Insurance solutions being offered now. And even the conventional group plans have had to look up their offerings and make improvement to stay competitive.

So what options are there for a business to provide a group health benefit plan?

1. Conventional Group Insurance Canada

Everyone is familiar with conventional workplace health benefits. They provide basic life insurance coverage, a disability insurance safety net and Accidental Death and Dismemberment Coverage. They also offer Prescription Drug and Dental coverage and extended health benefits like chiropractic, psychology, massage, and the like. There are a lot of different ways to build a benefit plan now and a good broker will help you to find the right coverage for the financial plan of your business.


2. Administrative Services Only (ASO)

An Administrative Services Only plan can offer all of the same benefits that a Conventional Group Plan.
So what's the difference?
The difference between ASO and a conventional group plan is that the ASO is basically self insuring. This reduces a lot of the "mark-up" in the group plan but also boosts the risk of high claims to the business. This risk can be reduced through the use of stop loss insurance. All in all an ASO plan can keep a business a lot of money while reducing on the whole costs.


3. Health Spending Accounts

A Health Spending Account is essentially a savings account set away for the purpose of medical spending. Incorporated professionals and small business owners find that this is a dynamic way to pay for health expenses they already have and to save for potential costs. A HSA is recognized by the Canada Revenue Agency and allows the person to pay for their annual healthcare costs in pre-tax dollars. Money put into the HSA are recognized as a full business deduction. This saves significant tax dollars. Of course there are limits to be put into a Health Spending Account. They are realistic limits.

So you can see that there are options to implement a health insurance plan for your business and employees. You might be amazed that you do not have to break the bank!