Small Business Health Insurance

Moneyrepublic offers affordable and flexible health insurance for small businesses across the UK. Our tailored plans cater to diverse needs, from biotech startups to family-run services, ensuring your team's well-being. Covering diagnostic tests, mental health, and inpatient care, our packages include benefits like GP appointments. We offer private healthcare policies to address work-related stress, promoting employee health. Simplifying the process, Moneyrepublic provides quick access to quality healthcare, supporting your business's growth. Choose Moneyrepublic for accessible and high-quality small business health insurance.

What is small business health insurance?

Small Business Health Insurance, or SME health insurance, caters to employees in small to medium-sized companies and covers specified medical expenses. Designed as a support system for employee well-being, SME medical insurance is indispensable for smaller businesses, helping maintain continuity amid staff absences due to illness. Our plans provide extensive coverage, addressing needs from cancer care to mental health support. This offers peace of mind to your employees and ensures seamless business operations.

Why do you need business health insurance?

Business health insurance can be seen as a tool to run a business in a more secure and efficient way.

Getting small business health insurance will help your company with the following:

• Saving time: Getting insurance guarantees fast access to healthcare services, which helps to reduce the time taken to resolve healthcare-related issues. It allows one to concentrate more on core business tasks, increasing the productivity of work.
• Getting access to various healthcare options: It provides different levels of healthcare access to suit your needs and budget.
• Ensuring the well-being of the employees: From the employees' point of view, having health insurance at work creates a safer and more comfortable working environment.
• Recruitment and staff retention: Private health insurance is a top employee benefit, enhancing your ability to attract and keep high-calibre staff.
• Fast-track medical care: With NHS waiting lists over 7.3 million people long as of March 2023, group health insurance ensures your employees get timely care, reducing absenteeism.
• Increasing productivity: Healthy, happy employees work better. Showing you care about their welfare creates an active, engaged, and high-performing team.
• Online GP appointments: Insurance will give you an opportunity to get a quick online or phone consultation with a general practitioner.
• Flexible appointment scheduling: Insurance will grant you and the employees of your enterprise more freedom in planning their healthcare appointments.

Who qualifies for small business medical insurance?

Health insurance for a small business implies that you have a company that qualifies as a small business, which usually means having up to 250 employees. However, it is suitable for sole traders as well.

As a small business owner, you can choose particular employees from your company to be included in the insurance, as well as their partners and children. The start date of the policy may differ depending on who is included in the plan. We can help you decide which format is most suitable for your case.

What's included in our health insurance policies?

The exact list of healthcare services that will be covered by the insurance policy depends on the plan you choose.

As for now, we offer three different insurance plans:

Why choose us for small business health insurance?

We protect your budget

We prioritise your financial well-being, offering small business health insurance solutions that align with your budget, ensuring cost-effectiveness without compromising coverage quality.

Insurance premium match

Our commitment includes providing competitive rates, matching insurance premiums that suit your business needs, and giving you value for your investment in employee health coverage.

Tailored packages

Experience personalised solutions tailored to your small business. Our flexible packages address your specific requirements, ensuring comprehensive coverage that fits seamlessly into your operational framework.

Personal service

At Moneyrepublic, we pride ourselves on delivering personalised service. Our dedicated professionals offer assistance, guidance, and a human touch to ensure your small business health insurance experience is seamless and satisfactory.

What does our small business health insurance cover?

Core coverage

Inpatient cover

Our small business health insurance provides extensive inpatient coverage. This includes treating acute conditions requiring a hospital bed and overnight stay, known as inpatient treatment. On the NHS, challenges arise when there's a waiting list for a specific diagnostic test, especially for non-urgent cases. This causes delays in diagnosis and subsequent treatment. Private healthcare can help circumnavigate these bottlenecks.

Mental health cover

In line with the spirit of the 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act, our small business health insurance prioritises mental health cover. The recent surge in remote work and the impact of the pandemic underline the need for proactive duty-of-care by UK businesses. This enhancement offers employees swift access to face-to-face and online counselling, contributing significantly to corporate governance. Notably, it lightens the load on your human resource department, emphasising a commitment to comprehensive employee well-being.

Optional extras

Tailor your small business health insurance policy to fit your specific needs. Choose from flexible options to create your plan or select from core coverage with add-on extras. Ensure your workforce gets the coverage they need with options designed to suit your business.

Outpatient cover

Our small business health insurance offers customisable outpatient coverage, encompassing the cost of initial investigations and tests for acute conditions that don't require overnight hospital stays. You can choose full outpatient cover, set a cash limit per year (typically £1,000), or exclude it for cost control. Opting for comprehensive cover ensures full access to both inpatient and outpatient treatments, including private diagnostics and testing for swift diagnosis. Tailor your coverage to suit your staff's needs and budget effectively.

Dental & optical

Our small business health insurance can extend coverage to dental and optical care. Cost-effectively meeting the needs of both health-conscious and less health-focused employees, we provide a straightforward approach. Opting for a cashback basis, employees can easily claim reimbursements for dental expenses, covering check-ups, hygienists, and x-rays, with a generous limit of approximately £400-£500 per year per employee. Additionally, optical coverage refunds employees between £200-£300 annually for new glasses with prescription lenses. This valued benefit enhances overall well-being as part of a comprehensive small business health insurance policy.

Private GP services

Some of our small business health insurance policies offer private GP services, a valuable addition to your policy. Consultations are conducted over the phone or online, including video calls arranged within 24 hours. This service addresses the challenges of lengthy wait times and work disruptions associated with local GP appointments. Employees benefit from prompt medical attention, reducing absenteeism. Additionally, coverage can extend to include dependents, making it an attractive option for parents with young and school-aged children. Elevate your employee healthcare with efficient and inclusive private GP services.

Extended hospital list

Add an extended hospital list to your business health insurance for an extra premium. This covers hospitals in high-cost areas like central London, allowing your staff to receive treatment near their home or work. Ensure comprehensive coverage tailored to your business location.

Dependents

Our small business health insurance allows you to extend coverage to employees' immediate families, fostering staff loyalty. Acknowledging the collaborative effort between work and home life, this extension is a highly effective way to support your team. The cost of including dependents can be covered by the company or funded by employees through salary sacrifice, both commendable options. With premiums negotiated to make the cost approximately one-third of an equivalent individual policy, uptake is generally high. Elevate your employee benefits by extending coverage to dependents with a small business health insurance policy.

What’s not covered?

Small business medical insurance policies generally do not cover:

• Pre-Existing Conditions
• Chronic Conditions
• Emergency Care
• Fertility Treatment
• Standard Pregnancies
• Cosmetic and Plastic Surgeries

How much does health insurance cost for a small business?

The cost of a small business health insurance policy can vary, depending on a number of different factors. The most important of them are:

• Size of the team. The more employees your company has, the more chances you have to get a discount, making the cost of insurance per employee lower.
• Age of the workers. The older a person is, the more their insurance will cost. The monthly insurance cost for employees in their sixties may be 2-3 times higher than for those in their thirties.
• Area of specialisation. The riskier the tasks employees are performing, the higher the insurance costs will be; insurance costs for a roofer would not be the same as those for an office worker.
• Location. The cost of the insurance depends on the average prices for the medical services in the area in which your business is located; it will be higher in London than in a small town.

Small business insurance costs also depend on the kind of insurance plan that is chosen. Plans with diagnosis and treatment will be more expensive than the basic ones. The same will apply to policies guaranteeing access to a GP and physio along with health checks and support.

How much does health insurance cost for a small business per employee?

As mentioned above, the cost of health insurance for small business employees depends on a number of factors. To estimate it more closely, let's consider an example:
Let’s examine a health insurance plan for a company outside London with 20 employees, with an average employee age of 30 years. The company clearly has a relatively young workforce. Here's what's covered: full in-patient and out-patient care, physiotherapy, dental and optical services, mental health support, and cancer-related services. Each employee pays a £100 excess per year, and the monthly premium is £380
The total annual premiums come to £4,560, and when divided by the number of employees, each costs £228 per year.
This plan covers a lot and involves sharing some costs. It includes a list of hospitals that workers can use and aims to keep things clear and simple for employees.
For businesses that care about their employees' health, this plan offers good coverage and support when needed.

Based on a typical policy for small businesses with 1 to 249 employees in January 2024.

The main types of company health insurance underwriting

Full medical underwriting (FMD)

Full Medical Underwriting (FMD) is a cost-effective choice for companies. Employees complete detailed medical questionnaires, and insurers may contact their GPs for accurate medical history. The key advantage is upfront clarity on coverage, including any exclusions due to historical conditions. While time-consuming, it's suitable for smaller companies with fewer than five employees. FMD ensures the transparency and affordability of your company’s health insurance policy, making it an ideal option for those seeking a clear understanding of coverage while minimising outlay.

Moratorium underwriting

Moratorium underwriting, the most common method applied for company and private medical insurance, defers the underwriting process until a claim is made. Covering employees, it automatically excludes pre-existing conditions from the past five years. In the event of a claim, the insurer assesses the patient’s medical history to determine coverage. Ideal for small businesses, it minimises paperwork and speeds up policy implementation. However, employees only discover coverage upon making a claim. While widely used, it's crucial to understand the limitations of Moratorium Underwriting for informed decision-making in company health insurance.

Medical history disregarded (MHD)

Medical History Disregarded (MHD) lives up to its name, disregarding employees' medical history and covering them for acute conditions, regardless of pre-existing status. Typically accessible for companies with 20 or more participants, this underwriting type comes at a higher cost due to the increased risk. MHD offers comprehensive coverage, making it suitable for larger companies seeking extensive health insurance benefits for their employees.

Does small business private health insurance cover pre-existing conditions?

Most of the health insurance plans in the UK do not cover pre-existing conditions. This applies to small business health insurance as well.

The main purpose of health insurance is to cover expenses for the health problems that arise after the coverage period has begun. On the other hand, pre-existing conditions refer to the health problems one has had before applying for the insurance policy. Usually, those are chronic illnesses for which one has received treatment or professional consultation within the five years before they applied for the policy.

However, suppose one has not consulted healthcare specialists or received any treatment for a pre-existing condition in the two years after the insurance coverage period started. In that case, future issues associated with that condition may be included in the coverage.

How is small business health insurance taxed?

Small business health insurance is funded using pre-tax profits, making it a deductible business expense. This expenditure typically isn't subject to corporation tax. Yet, for employees benefiting from health insurance, it becomes a P11D/benefit in kind, necessitating employers to complete a P11D form and report it to HMRC, leading to taxation for the employees.

Can I switch business health insurance providers if I want to?

Yes, switching business health insurance providers is generally possible, except when treatments for serious illnesses like cancer are ongoing. The crucial factor isn't just if you can switch but if it's the right choice for you. Assess your circumstances and reasons before making the decision to change health insurance companies.