Blue Cross Blue Shield stands out as the best health insurance company for small businesses because of its range of coverage options. The company offers a nationwide preferred provider organization (PPO) network and extra benefits for employees, including an extensive discount program. Depending on your state, you may have a few options for finding health coverage for your employees, including through the Small Business Health Insurance Options Program (SHOP)—a government marketplace for small business health plans—and by purchasing a traditional group health plan from a broker or directly from an insurer. To choose the best health insurance companies for small businesses, we evaluated major health insurance carriers based on financial strength, customer satisfaction, coverage options, telehealth and wellness benefits, digital tools, and more. These are our top picks. Best Health Insurance Companies for Small Businesses for 2024 Best Health Insurance Companies for Small Businesses for 2024 The Bottom Line Small Business Insurance Options Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) Methodology Why We Chose It Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) offers flexible options to small business owners, including the option to access the nation’s leading PPO network. In many states, BCBS employee plans come packed with extra benefits, and most plans include an extensive discount program. Pros & Cons Pros Nationwide availability Health and wellness discounts Workplace wellness programs in many states Cons Poor J.D. Power ranking in some regions Overview Blue Cross Blue Shield, which is also our pick for the best health insurance company overall, offers employers many options. Among them are plans that include access to the BlueCard PPO network, which gives employees coverage when traveling nationwide. In some states, BCBS offers fully insured, level-funded, and self-funded plans. Blue Cross Blue Shield is a group of companies, so benefits and plans vary by region, but many member companies offer extra benefits. For example, the member company Anthem provides an employee assistance program at no extra cost to help members manage stressful events, from legal issues to the search for care. In many states, BCBS plans also come with 24/7 telehealth and access to mobile app plan management. Most members also get access to Blue365, an extensive discount program that also offers a $25 gym membership in some states. BCBS and Anthem companies had a combined average of 3.5 stars out of 5 stars from the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), an independent body that judges insurance plans on the quality of their providers, as well as customer satisfaction. But customer satisfaction ratings vary by region. Check the 2023 J.D. Power U.S. Commercial Member Health Plan Study to see how BCBS fared in your region. While rankings are poor in many regions, BCBS was top-ranked in Florida. BCBS companies also have an A or A- financial strength rating from AM Best. Why We Chose It Kaiser Permanente has top customer satisfaction ratings from the NCQA and J.D. Power, along with an award-winning app and a suite of virtual care options. Pros & Cons Pros 4.2-star average NCQA rating Top-ranked by J.D. Power in most regions where available Administers HRAs, HSAs, and FSAs Robust support for chronic conditions Cons Only available in eight states and D.C. Overview Kaiser Permanente has better customer satisfaction ratings than any of the major health insurance providers we reviewed, with a 4.2-star average NCQA rating and top J.D. Power rankings in four regions. The company offers employers many options. While Kaiser is known for its health maintenance organization (HMO) plans, it also offers preferred provider organization (PPO) plans. Employees can pair some plans with a Kaiser-administered health reimbursem*nt arrangement (HRA), health savings account (HSA), or flexible spending account (FSA). Members can even submit HRA and FSA claims using their mobile phone cameras. Free wellness coaching is included at no cost. Members who are at risk for chronic conditions are automatically enrolled in a disease management program with comprehensive support and remote patient monitoring. And Kaiser offers several additional employee benefits, including dental, vision, acupuncture, and chiropractic. Kaiser is also our top pick for the best digital tools, with an award-winning app, 24/7 virtual care, mental health apps, and online physical therapy. The main drawback is that Kaiser Permanente isn’t available everywhere. The company only offers plans in eight states and the District of Columbia. Kaiser does offer a SHOP (Small Business Health Options Program) plan in Georgia and Virginia. Why We Chose It UnitedHealthcare offers small business plans nationwide, including a unique coverage solution for contractors, part-time workers, and seasonal employees. Pros & Cons Pros Offers a unique program for non-benefit-eligible workers Offers wellness resources and incentives A+ financial strength rating from AM Best Cons J.D. Power ratings vary by region Overview UnitedHealthcare is our top pick for small businesses with several types of employees and contractors, including part-time and seasonal workers. Its FlexWork program offers coverage for non-benefit-eligible employees nationwide. The program provides group-premium-equivalent rates for three plan types designed for different types of workers, and you can add extra benefits like $0 telehealth, dental, and vision. UnitedHealthcare also offers members access to Self Care (a wellness app), fitness incentives, an online weight loss program, a smoking cessation program, and more. Plus, UnitedHealthcare offers a large provider network of more than 1.3 million healthcare providers. UnitedHealthcare also boasts an A+ financial strength rating from AM Best and a 3.5-star average NCQA rating. Though J.D. Power ratings vary by region, UnitedHealthcare was the top-scoring company in Texas and Virginia. The company also offers SHOP plans in Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, and D.C. Why We Chose It Aetna is one of the few health insurance companies to offer self-insured plans tailored to small businesses. We also like that it offers virtual primary care and a CVS allowance. Pros & Cons Pros Offers self-funded plans for up to 25% upfront savings Offers a variety of health expense funds Optional robust behavioral health benefits Members of some plans can access affordable care at MinuteClinic locations Cons Fully insured group plans in some states don’t include MinuteClinic benefits Overview Self-funded plans from Aetna offer up to 25% savings upfront, plus stop-loss insurance if your claims for a particular month go over your maximum claims amount. When you renew your plan, Aetna will refund 50% of any surplus funding to you. Members get access to CVS Health virtual primary care plus up to a $100 allowance for health and wellness products at CVS. The company also offers HRAs, HSAs, FSAs, and retirement reimbursem*nt arrangements (RRAs) in most states. In addition, you have the option of adding behavioral health benefits that include virtual counseling, mental health tools, and an employee assistance program. Many plans offer MinuteClinic benefits as well, but fully insured plans in some states are excluded. Aetna has a 3.5-star average NCQA rating and a financial strength rating of A with AM Best. The company also came out on top in the East South Central, Northwest, and Southwest regions in the 2023 J.D. Power U.S. Commercial Health Plan Study, but ratings vary by region. Aetna offers SHOP plans in Maryland and D.C. Blue Cross Blue Shield offers the most options for employers, with many plans providing access to the BlueCard PPO network and 24/7 telehealth, along with a variety of funding options in some states. If you’re looking for a self-funded plan, Aetna offers the best option tailored to small businesses in many states, as well as CVS benefits and optional robust behavioral health benefits. Kaiser Permanente takes the cake for customer satisfaction, with high third-party ratings and great digital tools, while UnitedHealthcare’s unique FlexWork program makes it our top pick for nontraditional employees. When choosing small business health insurance, you have a few options, according to Robert Slayton, an employee benefits consultant. One option is to purchase a small group plan directly from a commercial health insurance company that serves small businesses or through a broker. “It gives the employer control over which plans to offer and [assurance] that people will remain covered while employed,” said Slayton. However, you may also need to offer COBRA or mini-COBRA plans. Mini-COBRA plans are required by some states for companies with fewer than 20 employees. You may be able to save money by taking on the responsibility of paying out employee health claims yourself. This is known as a self-funded or self-insured plan, which typically relies on a commercial health insurer to administer the provider network and provide assistance with enrollment and claims processing. Another option is for the employer to offer a health reimbursem*nt arrangement (HRA), which is an employer-funded group plan that pays employees back for qualified health expenses up to a certain dollar amount each year. Expenses may include premiums for an employer-sponsored plan, as well as copays and coinsurance. There are several types of HRAs, including a qualified small employer HRA (QSEHRA) for companies with fewer than 50 full-time employees. Another type is an individual coverage HRA (ICHRA), which lets employees use the funds to buy their own health insurance with pretax dollars. Funds can also be used for copays and deductibles. “[Employers] choose an amount to give each employee so that the employee can purchase coverage on their own,” said Slayton. “Employees who claim this reimbursem*nt must have an underlying individual plan or Medicare.” The Small Business Health Insurance Options Program allows you to compare small business plans offered on the ACA Marketplace and offer one or multiple options to your employees. These plans are typically the only route to the Small Business Health Care Tax Credit. However, they’re only offered on the federal marketplace in eight states and on state-run exchanges in 13 states. If you employ fewer than 50 people full-time, you are not required to offer health insurance to your employees. But more than half of firms that size do offer it, according to the National Federation of Independent Business. A 2022 U.S. Chamber of Commerce survey found that 88% of employees rank health insurance as the most important employer-provided benefit. If you have 50 or more employees and choose not to offer coverage that meets federal standards, you’ll be required to pay a penalty called a Shared Responsibility Payment instead. Costs vary by location and the network and coverage you choose, but on average, small businesses contributed $7,349 per single covered employee in 2023. Experts recommend keeping your total employee benefit costs between 10% to 20% of your overall revenue. A self-insured health plan is a type of group health insurance in which the employer collects premiums and is responsible for paying claims when employees need care. These plans can be self-administered, or the business may work with an insurance provider to get stop-loss coverage (which puts a ceiling on your risk) and administrative support. There are several benefits to self-funded plans. Employers can keep surplus premiums (or receive a portion returned by the stop-loss carrier), plans can be customized to a greater degree, and certain ACA provisions that lead to high costs can be avoided. Increasingly, small businesses are opting for self-funded coverage. But self-insured plans aren’t right for every business. Yes. An S corp can provide health insurance for its employees. However, most health insurance companies require you to have at least two employees to get a group plan, so if you are an S corp owner and don’t have employees, you’ll need to get individual health insurance from the ACA Marketplace. Additionally, you can’t provide an HRA to anyone with a greater than 2% stake in your company. We chose the best health insurance companies for small businesses by looking at our research for our list of the overall best health insurance companies and then investigating what options these insurers offer for small businesses looking to buy plans for their employees. To identify which health insurance companies to review for our overall winners list, we analyzed business and market insight databases, considered health insurance company market share, and researched user-generated data from Google to determine public interest and trends in health insurance companies and plans. We collected data from the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), an independent organization that rates healthcare plans on quality and patient satisfaction. We also gathered data from state and federal government insurance marketplace websites and databases, and directly from companies via websites, media contacts, and existing partnerships. The data collection process took place between Sept. 29 and Oct. 23, 2023. We then developed a quantitative model that scores each health insurance provider based on 27 criteria that fall into four major categories and are crucial in evaluating the company’s offerings and benefits. We weighted the four categories as follows for this article: Read our full methodology for reviewing health insurance companies.Best Health Insurance Companies for Small Businesses for 2024
Best Overall : Blue Cross Blue Shield
Best for Customer Satisfaction : Kaiser Permanente
Best for Part-Time and Seasonal Workers : UnitedHealthcare
Best for Self-Funded Plans : Aetna
The Bottom Line
Small Business Insurance Options
Small Group Health Insurance
Self-Funded Plan
Health Reimbursem*nt Arrangement (HRA)
SHOP Plan
Frequently Asked Questions
Do Small Businesses Have to Provide Health Insurance?
How Much Does Small Business Health Insurance Cost?
What Is a Self-Insured Health Plan?
Can an S Corp Pay for Health Insurance?
How We Chose the Best Health Insurance Companies for Small Businesses
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See Also
Best Small Business Health Insurance Providers Of 2024Healthcare Options for Small Businesses: A Comprehensive Guide7 Best Health Insurance for Small Business OwnersSmall Business Health Insurance:fill(white):max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/kaiser-permanente-581ab2a7e6c74a89baf28b7d801eb0a5.jpg "Best Health Insurance Companies for Small Businesses for 2024 (2)")
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FAQs
What are the top 5 health insurance companies? ›
The five largest health insurance companies are UnitedHealth Group, Anthem, Kaiser Permanente, Ambetter and Humana. Currently insured?
Which insurance company is usually the cheapest? ›The cheapest car insurance rate is $38 a month from Geico according to our research team's cost analysis of national average prices for minimum coverage. The top 10 cheapest car insurance companies are Nationwide, Geico, State Farm, Travelers, Progressive, AAA, Allstate, Chubb, Farmers and USAA.
Is health insurance a business expense for an LLC? ›If you're a business partner or LLC member who's treated as a partner for tax purposes, you can deduct the health insurance premiums you pay directly. If the partnership or LLC pays the premiums, you can still claim the deduction for premiums paid for your coverage by following special rules.
Is health insurance tax deductible for business owners? ›If you are asking yourself, “are health insurance premiums tax deductible?”, the answer is usually yes. When you enroll in group health insurance, you will likely pay at least 50% of the monthly premiums for your employees. The amount of money you pay toward the premium is usually tax deductible for your company.
What are the best and worst health insurance companies? ›Health insurance company ratings
Kaiser Permanente is the top-rated health insurance company in the U.S. Good insurance companies include Blue Cross Blue Shield, UnitedHealthcare, Humana, Aetna and Cigna. The worst-rated health insurance companies are Oscar, Molina and Ambetter.
To help protect your business, you'll need to get the right liability insurance for small business, including: General liability insurance for small business. Professional liability insurance. Employment practices liability insurance.
Should I shop around for business insurance? ›As a general rule, you'll want to get business insurance quotes from at least three different companies. To the greatest extent possible, the prospective policies should offer similar coverage so that you can clearly compare price.
Is Hartford a good insurance company? ›The Hartford scores better than average for home insurance claims satisfaction, according to the experiences of policyholders who submitted a property damage claim. Conversely to auto, however, the company ranked below average in the 2024 J.D. Power U.S. Property Claims Satisfaction Study with a score of 864 vs.