Healthcare benefits are the most popular benefits of employees. The types of benefits must be offered by the employers to stay competitive in the market. It allows them to attract the most talented employees. However, it depends on the factor that if the other employers from the same industry and field are also offering the healthcare insurance policies for their employees or not. Furthermore, offering employees healthcare benefits also helps the employers avoid penalties imposed by the healthcare reforms in the United States. For instance, in Hawaii, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act requires employers with more than fifty employees to offer adequate healthcare coverage. The fifty employees include a combination of both full-time and part-time workers.
Another reason behind why an employee must offer healthcare benefits to his employees lies in the fact that the employers themselves can get less expensive health insurance policies (Summers, 1989). Moreover, they are given tax breaks on the contributions the employers make towards the health insurance of their workers. Any business with less than twenty-five workers are eligible for tax credit if they buy employees healthcare insurances. The employers also enjoy other tax gain advantages when they increase their contribution package. Moreover, self-employed individuals can enjoy a hundred-percent of their healthcare insurance premiums as business expenses and thus, have to pay no taxes on them. Similarly, all of the insurance costs of the employers as well as the employees are deductible if the business in incorporated.
Employees group purchasing power must be offered even if the employer does not contribute anything towards the healthcare insurance of their workers. For instance, a small business may purchase the insurance from Small Business Health Options Program – a government-run insurance marketplace. Most importantly, the employers must ensure the wellness of their workers and thus, must offer healthcare insurances to them (Pronk, 2014).
Works Cited
Summers, Lawrence H. “Some simple economics of mandated benefits.” The American Economic Review 79.2 (1989): 177-183.
Pronk, Nicolaas P. “Placing workplace wellness in proper context: value beyond money.” Preventing chronic disease 11 (2014).
