Company Health Insurance
What is company health insurance?

Company health insurance is a contract between a company and an insurance provider for the provision of health care for all or a certain number of the employees of the former. If you run a company – whether it’s with a few or several hundred employees – you might wish to consider the benefits of offering private medical insurance (PMI) as part of the remuneration package for some or all of your staff.

Why?

Probably the most obvious initial question, of course, is why should you and your company do it. Company health insurance for your employees might help in a number of ways to provide a win-win solution for both the company and your employees.

So how might you benefit and at the same time bring benefits to your employees through the introduction of company health insurance?

Employee benefits

• private health insurance is still generally considered somewhat expensive for the individual subscriber. A company health scheme offers employees a PMI benefit they might otherwise be unable to enjoy;
• employees typically attach importance to their whole remuneration package, rather than just their pay. Ready access to private medical care is likely to be widely prized;
• the relationship with the employer is important to the typical employee. The employer prepared to demonstrate a practical concern for the welfare of his staff is likely to have cemented a more positive relationship;
• the positive image displayed by a company that includes health care as a major component of its remuneration package is something in which employees might take a genuine pride and sense of loyalty.

Employer benefits

From the employer’s perspective, contented employees tend to form a motivated, hard-working and loyal work force. The particular benefits to the employer of introducing company health insurance include:

• an enhanced ability to recruit the best-qualified staff;
• the ability to retain well-motivated and loyal staff;
• fewer working days lost through sickness absence;
• a faster return to work of those employees who do fall ill;
• the ability to relate employees’ performance or length of service to access to the company health insurance scheme (or differentiated levels of cover).

Company health insurance offers benefits to both staff and employers and with budget-conscious, affordable corporate health insurance plans now available, it is something that a forward-thinking employer may wish to consider.