Health Care for Small to Medium Businesses

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      10 Nov 2010

      Your Most Valuable Assets

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      All companies prize their most valuable assets, their office space, their delivery fleet, anything that they need to get the job done in the most efficient manner. Especially in the world of Small Business it is absolutely a priority that everything runs as smoothly as possible. To this end all good bosses make sure that evrything in the workplace is insured, except for their most valuable asset: their employees.

      Without their employees to man the office or the delivery vans then the entire company might fall apart at the seams. If this is the case then why are so many businesses reluctant to insure their people? Of course, we all know that there is no thing as a free lunch, but this can also be said about your company health insurance plan, but if the workforce is so vital then it too has to be insured.

      There is a recession I know, but only those companies that do everything in their power to keep all their assets intact, will come sailing out at the other side, and those that take great care with their employees will be in the best position to retain them when the economic climate gets much better! So look after your most valuable assets before rushing to insure all the other material things are secured.

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      17 Sep 2010

      Are You an SME

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      The concept of a SME is at best vague, at worst completely meaningless. In the USA it is not used particularly often when reffering to bussineses, the term SMB being more popular. So it was to this end that the European Union decided that, within the EU anyway, it will be best if there is some kind of harmonisation so that there is a level playing field.

      The main recommendations that were brought up were that companies with fewer than ten staff members ought to be regarded as micro businesses, fewer than 50 they are categorised as small, and those with fewer than 250 are to be regarded as medium sized. The main reason was beacause there variations in the definitions and in the tax rates across the EU, and it was leading to there being unfair advantages for some countries' SMEs over their neighbours.

      So there it is now you know where your business stands, at least in the EU, but that is better than nothing.

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      13 Sep 2010

      Group Health Insurance bucks the Trend

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      Andrew Tripp, the chairman of the Association of Medical Insurance Intermediaries [AMII] has come out with a somewhat bold statement of late "the health insurance sector is fairly recession proof". As I said this is a very bold thing to come out with when nobody is sure of what the future is going to hold in any sector of the economy. But is he correct? After all it would not be in his best interests to say anything less.

      Well in some ways yes, and in other ways no. The simple fact is that sales in Small business health insurance policies are down, but they are certainly nowhere near following the general downturn in the economy.  And of course there are mitigating factors in any such results, for example when companies downsize in order to tighten the belt during a recession, this automatically means they need less policies, but it is not a statement of their relationship with their own provider.

      But it is also true that some companies will have changed providers in order to lower costs too. This is classic swings and roundabouts, the truth, as ever, is somewhere in the middle, some companies will be outperforming the national trend, whilst others will be underperforming. The truth is that bothing is recession proof, but sometimes certain sectors of the economy can buck the trend, currently the private health insurance market is doing this.

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      28 Jun 2010

      Small Businesses in the Future

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      Most of this nations businesses come under the tag of SMEs [Small to Medium Enterprises], and so it has always been since the industrial revolution. However, this means that they are going to take the brunt of the secondary factors in the period of austerity, simply due to the fact that there are so many. This is not to say that the chancelor didn't put down many measures to offset the pain in a sector that already has such a high attrition rate, but this is still going to be severe.

      The government has raised the threshhold on tax relief for "entrepreneurs" but at the same time capital gains taxes have gone up.

      "Employers face higher healthcare benefits costs after the chancellor announced an increase in Insurance Premium Tax (IPT) yesterday, experts have warned."

      Warned a leading website.

      This could be worrying to every SME that offers a Corporate health plan as a perk to try to entice better employees to their growing business.

       

      The full budget has not been giiven the complete running over to see which parts affect the others and what the economy as a whole will look like after the dust has settled and everything has run its course. Some of the measures in the budget were simply conciliatory, such as the repealing of the tax hike on cider, but others are sure to have a big impact. For example nobody really knows what effect the cutting of 25% spending in all government departments will really do, apart from making a lot of civil servants no longer civil servants, and how much can unemployed civil servants spend, not very much. This may get worse before it gets better.

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      18 Feb 2010

      Health Insurance - Read the Small Print

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      The differences between the policies offered by the many different Health Insurance companies vary so widely that it is causing bewilderment among Small & Medium Businesses according to research carried out by independent financial adviser Alan Lakey.

      His research especially pointed out the discrepancies between the various thresholds for Income Protection Insurance and what qualifies as a debilitating injury. Many insurers demand that the injured party fail two out of six tests to qualify, amongst which are often rudimentary tasks such as 'communicating' and 'walking'. This can leave many people clearly unable to work at their full potential in 'limbo'.

      However with the maximum sickness benefit available in the UK currently at £89.90, per week, most people with outside responsibilities need to take up income protection. The differences were felt most strikingly by those companies who offered corporate health insurance to small companies and to the self-employed, ie those that could not risk the loss of man hours to keep their business a viable concern.

      The main finding of the research was that many people were more interested in the bottom line when it came to their insurance rather than reading the fine print.

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      11 Feb 2010

      Price v Value!

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      Much of the talk in the financial pages has been about price. But what does it tell us about content?

      Clearly you could just sign up for the cheapest packages available that doesn't mean that it will provide the adequate coverage when that coverage is needed the most.

      For example are you covered for time lost by an employee, as well as the cost hiring temporary staff to replace that person?
      Is the firm covered in case more than one employee goes ill?

      If you are struggling to wade through all the masses of check boxes that you either might want or might need. Then one thing you ought think about is asking one of the trusted small business medical insurance agencies what they recommend, then ask another. From two, or more, you ought see what the market looks like.

      One thing is sure, accidents are called accidents because we never know when they might arise. But sometimes it's best to plan for the future we don't expect, as well as the future we expect.

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      11 Feb 2010

      Health Matters!

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      Welcome to my first post.

      Here I invite all of you to join a lively debate on all the things that matter in the world of Healthcare for burgeoning Small to Medium Enterprises [SMEs]. Here we'll look at the pros & cons of Private Medical Insurance in comparison with State-Run Health Care Systems.

      We'll also look at ways in which you can properly look after the health & well being of all the associates of that business. From possible work days out to charity sporting events, through to possible ideas for healthy eating for any food/drink provided at the place of work.

      So if you have anything to add, or if you have an idea for a post just give me a shout.

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    We are a small group of enthusiastic people who work in the business world. The news we write will hopefully be helpful or engaging to our audience.
    Part of this site was created by Equator Digital Agency who are based in Glasgow.

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