Health insurance question

[Anonymous]

I know there have been many threads on health insurance before, but I'm having trouble answering my precise question.

I pay payroll taxes for my nanny and am interested in securing health insurance for her. I have looked at the Maryland SHOP plans. If I want to only pay a portion of the monthly premium (say 75%), how does this work? Do I simply pay 100% of the premium to the insurer and then deduct the portion that she is responsible for (25% in my example) from her pre-tax wages?

Thanks in advance.

[Anonymous]

When you sign up for shop, one of the questions is how much / what you want to cover. At least when I did it in TX, I had an option of covering x% of a "base" plan (where I could choose both X as long as it was >=50% and what the "base" plan was). There are other options like you cover x% of a range of plans and your nanny gets to choose one (e.g. all Aetna plans, all gold plans). You would send in a check (or direct deposit) for whatever you owe each month. Nanny needs to sign up for an account as well and I think she sends in her own payment.

[Anonymous]

The MD health connection enrollment period has ended but I am not very sure if they are extending the deadline until end of January( it was extended last year, check their website). How u can enroll her is to create an account on the MDHC website for the nanny and put in all her info like salary and dependents and based on that she will receive a subsidy or none and then you will pick a plan endorsed by MDHC or a different plan if you prefer. The subsidy is then applied toward that plan, if any balance is left out then nanny is required to pay directly to insurance company. This year I am only paying $12 for a Kaiser Silver plan thanks to MDHC....very helpful.

[Anonymous]

Same poster above: I know for a fact that nannies don’t like to have money deducted from their checks lol so my advice is to credit 75 percent of the insurance cost directly to her monthly. That way you have no involment when stuff start happening between her and the insurance like unpaid bills.

[Anonymous]

It might be better for her to get an individual policy, not through the SHOP and for you to set up a small employer HRA. It got really easy to do that last year.

[Anonymous]

I have found that reimbursing our long-time nanny up to a fixed amount (we now do $600) towards her monthly health, dental and vision insurance premiums is the best way to handle this benefit. That allows her to pick the plan(s) she wants without us getting involved in the details. We steer clear of any problems she might encounter with a particular insurer or plan but provide a valuable, non-taxable benefit. Every month she gives me copies of her premium payments and I issue electronic reimbursements to her account up to $600.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have found that reimbursing our long-time nanny up to a fixed amount (we now do $600) towards her monthly health, dental and vision insurance premiums is the best way to handle this benefit. That allows her to pick the plan(s) she wants without us getting involved in the details. We steer clear of any problems she might encounter with a particular insurer or plan but provide a valuable, non-taxable benefit. Every month she gives me copies of her premium payments and I issue electronic reimbursements to her account up to $600.

Careful, starting in 2017 there is a limit on the tax free monthly benefit for health insurance AND you have to report what you gave her on her W-2 form. It isn't taxed, it just impacts her subsidy on her tax return.

The reimbursements cannot exceed $4950/year for single coverage or $10,000/year for family coverage, adjusted for inflation. The amount must be prorated to reflect any partial year coverage.
Note: if the employer wants to give more than $4950/$10,000, it must do so as taxable, unrestricted cash. Otherwise, the excess amounts will be considered to be a “group health plan” that does not comply with the ACA’s insurance mandates.
https://www.employmentmattersblog.com/2017/03/qsehra-the-21st-century-cures-act-creates-a-new-health-care-plan-option-for-small-employers/

And this http://info.homeworksolutions.com/blog/how-to-setup-a-qsehra-for-your-nanny-health-insurance

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have found that reimbursing our long-time nanny up to a fixed amount (we now do $600) towards her monthly health, dental and vision insurance premiums is the best way to handle this benefit. That allows her to pick the plan(s) she wants without us getting involved in the details. We steer clear of any problems she might encounter with a particular insurer or plan but provide a valuable, non-taxable benefit. Every month she gives me copies of her premium payments and I issue electronic reimbursements to her account up to $600.

Careful, starting in 2017 there is a limit on the tax free monthly benefit for health insurance AND you have to report what you gave her on her W-2 form. It isn't taxed, it just impacts her subsidy on her tax return.

The reimbursements cannot exceed $4950/year for single coverage or $10,000/year for family coverage, adjusted for inflation. The amount must be prorated to reflect any partial year coverage.
Note: if the employer wants to give more than $4950/$10,000, it must do so as taxable, unrestricted cash. Otherwise, the excess amounts will be considered to be a “group health plan” that does not comply with the ACA’s insurance mandates.
https://www.employmentmattersblog.com/2017/03/qsehra-the-21st-century-cures-act-creates-a-new-health-care-plan-option-for-small-employers/

And this http://info.homeworksolutions.com/blog/how-to-setup-a-qsehra-for-your-nanny-health-insurance

Good to know, thank you. In view of this change, we will probably stop providing this benefit immediately and give her a raise to cover this amount instead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The MD health connection enrollment period has ended but I am not very sure if they are extending the deadline until end of January( it was extended last year, check their website). How u can enroll her is to create an account on the MDHC website for the nanny and put in all her info like salary and dependents and based on that she will receive a subsidy or none and then you will pick a plan endorsed by MDHC or a different plan if you prefer. The subsidy is then applied toward that plan, if any balance is left out then nanny is required to pay directly to insurance company. This year I am only paying $12 for a Kaiser Silver plan thanks to MDHC....very helpful.

How is your plan so cheap?? I'm paying $500 for gold