By Christine Breaw on February 09, 2016

HSAs: Why Replace or Supplement Health Insurance for Small Businesses

For many employers, health insurance for small businesses is the Holy Grail. Being able to reduce or eliminate a serious financial burden for your workers is a surefire way of attracting top talent, reducing your business’s turnover rate, and ensuring that employees arrive happy and health each day.

Unfortunately, health insurance for small businesses does have its disadvantages. For one, small business owners seldom have the money on hand to insulate themselves against “what-ifs.” This is especially true for start-ups. Health insurance for small businesses also comes with a number of limitations and exclusions. These exclusions could rule out the very thing you wanted covered in the first place, and the annual dollar cap on paid losses can be inconvenient.

There might be a better way. Though often used as a complement to health insurance for small businesses rather than a substitute, health benefits plans may be just what you’re looking for. Read on to learn why thousands of Canadian business owners are choosing health benefits plans like our Health Spending Account.

Understanding Benecaid’s Health Spending Account (HSA)

First introduced in 1986 by Canada’s Revenue Agency, HSAs were initially exclusive to executives of large corporations because of the complexity of their set up. Fortunately, things got easier – since 2000, Benecaid has been providing HSAs to thousands of employees of small and mid-sized business owners on a very cost-effective basis.

Why are employers choosing the Benecaid HSA?

There are a number of reasons why employers are opting to replace or supplement health insurance for small businesses using the Benecaid HSA:

  • Flexibility. Funds in your HSA can be used in a number of different ways. The list of eligible expenses is exhaustive. There is also no set plan design, which means the employee has incredible control over how they spend their funds. Eligible dependents can include family members outside of your spouse and children, too.
  • Optional insurance coverage. It doesn’t have to be an “either/or” situation with a Benecaid HSA. You can supplement your traditional health insurance for small businesses to provide an incredibly attractive coverage program for prospective employees.
  • Save money, reduce your taxes. Imagine that you are about to pay $5,000 for laser eye surgery – what a bargain. Without a Benecaid HSA, you would have to earn about $9,000 to be left with $5,000 after income taxes and source deductions. In contrast, you would only need to earn $6,105 – this amounts to $2,895 in savings!

Are you interested in learning more about how a Benecaid HSA can be used to replace or supplement health insurance for small businesses? Visit https://www.benecaid.com/health-spending-account-hsa/ or call 1-877-797-7448 today.

Published by Christine Breaw February 9, 2016