From Deseret News archives:

Small firms offered an insurance break

Published: Friday, May 2, 2008 12:09 a.m. MDT
 |  E-MAIL | PRINT | FONT + - 
Humana of Utah is offering small businesses that are members of the Salt Lake Chamber a discount on health-insurance plans.

To qualify, the businesses must have fewer than 100 employees. The discount will average around 2 percent. For a 10-employee group, that would roughly mean the employer would save $1,000 a year for health premiums, said Earl Hurst, president of Humana's Utah commercial operations.

"For a small employer in Utah, that's $1,000 they wouldn't have to pay because of their membership in the Salt Lake Chamber," he said.

Small employers have the option of choosing from different insurance programs Humana offers in Utah, which include plans with high and low deductibles.

Each group would be individually underwritten as they normally would, and the premiums that the employer would normally pay for health insurance are based on factors such as group health, Hurst said.

All employers are struggling with the rising prices of health insurance. Hurst notes that it is the highest cost for a business after salaries, and sometimes is higher than salaries. Large employee groups can absorb health costs for people who are sick because the cost is distributed among the large group, a luxury small businesses don't necessarily have.

Story continues below
Small businesses also sometimes pay more for insurance if the health of the group is questionable.

"What you have are essentially insurance companies that rate you as a group," said Natalie Gochnour, chief operating officer of the Salt Lake Chamber. "There tends to be a lot more variation in the premium price, depending on the health of the small group."

The percentage of Utah companies offering health insurance has dropped from 57 percent in 1998 to 44 percent in 2005, "and a big part of that has been small businesses," Gochnour said.

Humana is also offering insurance discounts with chambers of commerce in a handful of other U.S. cities, including Cincinnati, Memphis and Phoenix.


E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com

Comments

You can be the first to comment on this story.

previousnext

Latest comments

Protests against Phoenix LDS temple

To the 4:12 commentator, The Michigan Detroit Temple is lucky if there...

And I'm sure your big protest didn't cause any problems with traffic, crowds,...

Shame on the Desnews. I think you could have found at least one or two 2A...

Utah's boorish behavior is well documented. It will improve when the civil...

Nobody in Phoenix has waited a LONG TIME for a temple. The members have...

that BYU fans can be just as bad. This article doesn't cover the Utah...

Michelle..thank you for all the guidance, encouragement, courage and...

Utah Jazz + 30 years = 0 championships. ReAL Salt Lake + 5 years = 1...

Protests against Phoenix LDS temple

Earlier I asked a question and neither of the answers had anything to do with...

BYU would like friendlier rivalry

That there is no such thing as Ute fans, there are just byu fans and byu haters.

Advertisements