The number of group insurers in Canada has decreased in the past decade. There have been many mergers and acquisitions among the group divisions of traditional life insurance companies. They have consolidated their group operations into just a fraction of the long time key players. Recently some innovative new Group Health Insurance solutions have been introduced. The traditional group plans offered by the big companies have had to improve their offerings in response

Health benefit plans have been offered by business to their employees for decades. The coverage includes basic group life insurance, a long term disability insurance, as well as Accidental Death and Dismemberment Coverage. Extended Health Benefits including Prescription Drug and Dental coverage (not always both), and other benefits including naturopaths, vision, chiropractic, psychology, and the like. ASO plans offer all of the same benefits of a Traditional Group Plan and more. A key difference between ASO and a traditional plan is that Administrative Services Only is essentially self insuring. This eliminates a lot of the insurance costs in the health plan. It also increases the businesses risk if high claims occur. That risk is often reduced through the implementation of a stop loss insurance. Overall, an ASO plan can save your business a significant amount of money by decreasing overall costs. In general terms, a Health Spending Account is a savings plan set up for the purpose of medical spending. Business owners and professionals find that this is a great way to pay for health expenses they already have. They also plan for and save for future costs. Health Spending Accounts are recognized by the Canada Revenue Agency and allows the individual to pay for their annual healthcare costs in pre-tax dollars. Money put into the HSA are recognized as a full business deduction allowing for savings of significant tax dollars. There are reasonable limits to how much can be put into a Health Spending Account.

Tags :