3 Reasons Why Tech Startups Should Offer Health Insurance To Their Employees

If you're a tech startup, you're likely not legally required to offer your employees health insurance. The requirement only applies to larger businesses with more employees, which leaves you with the choice of whether or not to provide employee benefits.

Providing health insurance to your employees can be expensive, even with employees paying for a portion of it from their paychecks. For a cash-strapped tech startup, the costs can be considerable. However, the benefits of providing your employees with group health insurance typically outweigh the costs. Below, you'll learn three reasons why tech startups should make sure that they offer health insurance as part of their benefits package.

1. Helps Attract Senior and Mid-Level Talent

In general, the importance of a potential employer offering employee benefits tends to increase as people age and advance in their careers. Young employees who apply to entry-level positions may not care too much about health insurance or saving for retirement, but their older, more experienced counterparts certainly will.

Providing employee benefits helps your company attract skilled employees who often see it as a requirement. If your competitors are all offering benefits and you aren't, you may have difficulty hiring employees with tech experience. As a result, your team may lack the skills that it needs for your startup to thrive. Providing employees with health insurance puts you on par with your competitors, making it easier to find employees with the technical skills that you need.

2. Improves Employee Health and Productivity

If you don't provide health insurance to your employees, they're responsible for obtaining it on their own. Some employees may forego purchasing health insurance entirely, which has the unfortunate effect of making routine outpatient care more expensive. Employees without insurance may avoid going to see their primary care physician to help with their health problems, leading to reduced productivity at work due to untreated chronic illness or their health getting worse without proper treatment.

Providing health insurance to your employees helps to keep them well. Health insurance companies have been moving towards preventative care and trying to catch health issues before they become serious. This helps the insurance companies save money in the long term, and it also helps improve your employee productivity by keeping them healthy and able to focus on work.

Some health insurance companies will even send clinical staff to your workplace in order to perform health screenings, which allows your employees to know if they have silent health issues that need to be addressed, such as high blood pressure. Overall, providing employee benefits is an excellent way to help your employees stay healthy enough to be productive.

3. Allows You to Save Money on Your Own Health Insurance

Finally, you'll be able to partake in the employee benefits as well. If you're currently paying for your own health insurance, then this can help you and your family save money. Group health insurance typically features lower premiums than individual health insurance due to the fact that risk is spread out over numerous group members.

Since insurers set their premiums based on the risk they're assuming, less risk leads to lower premiums. You'll generally be able to find lower premiums by providing benefits to your employees and insuring yourself through your business.

Reach out to a professional near you for more information about group health insurance. 

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