Group Health Insurance Plan Information
Millions of Americans are covered under a group health insurance plan. All eligible applicants under a group health plan will have lower costs and fewer restrictions on insurability than individual health plans.
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Definition
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Group health insurance is a policy that provides coverage for people within the same group such as labor unions or work forces. These plans require that all eligible applicants receive coverage regardless of their health condition.
Types
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Group health insurance plans are mostly employer or government sponsored. Employers offer their employees health insurance as part of their benefits. Employees become eligible once they meet their employer's requirements such as being employed for a specific amount of time. Government-sponsored health plan have members who meet certain guidelines such as age and income levels. Medicaid, which is provided to people who are disabled or have low income levels, and Medicare, which benefits the elderly, are the two main government health plans.
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Risk Pool
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This type of group health insurance is run by state governments and offered to people who cannot afford private insurance and cannot get enrolled into other group plans. The premiums for this insurance are capped by the government in order to be affordable by members as most have costly medical problems that other insurances won't cover.
Pros
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Premiums for a group health plan are lower than individual plans. More than 70 percent of the premiums of an employer-sponsored health plan are paid by the company, according to Kaiser Family Foundation. Members of Medicaid and part A of Medicare do not pay any premiums.
Cons
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Group health plans have requirements for members that must be met and maintained in order to keep coverage. An employee will lose his benefits if he were to change jobs and those who have Medicaid cannot earn more than the limit or his insurance will be canceled. Also these plan details are not negotiable and cannot be changed.
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