Small Business Health Insurance Plans & Benefits – New Mexico

Choose small business plans or group health insurance plans in New Mexico from Altius Health Plans, Humana, SelectHealth, an Intermountain Healthcare company and Regence BlueCross BlueShield of New Mexico.

You are not required to offer health insurance to employees of your small business. A small business is defined as 2–50 employees. If you do offer health insurance, there are some specific state and federal rules and regulations that you need to pay attention to.

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Small Business and Group Information

Product Information

Group Dental Insurance
New IRS ruling on over–the–counter medications

Tax Advantage Plans

General Information

Information courtesy of The Kaiser Family Foundation, statehealthfacts.org. Data Source: Data as of January 2009. Data compiled through review of state laws and regulations and interviews with state health insurance regulatory staff. For more detailed information on consumer protections in any state see Georgetown University’s
"Consumer Guides For Getting and Keeping Health Insurance"

Federal law extends certain protections to employers seeking to buy health insurance for themselves and their workers. New Mexico has enacted reforms to expand some of these protections. Generally, small employers are those that employ 2–50 employees. Please note, however, that the definitions of small employer and employee are somewhat different under federal and state law. Check with the New Mexico Insurance Department to be sure that you know which protections apply to your group.

With few exceptions, small employers cannot be turned down. This is called guaranteed issue. If you employ at least 2 but not more than 50 people, health insurance companies must sell you any small group health insurance policy they sell to other small employers. However, they can require that a minimum percentage of your eligible employees sign up for coverage. They can also require you to pay a minimum share of your workers’ premiums. If you are buying a large group health insurance policy for 51 or more employees, your group can be turned down.

Your insurance cannot be canceled because someone in your group becomes sick. This is called guaranteed renewability and it applies to group plans of all sizes. Insurers can impose other conditions, however. They can require you to meet minimum participation and contribution rates in order to renew your coverage. Additionally, they can refuse to renew your coverage for nonpayment of premiums or if you commit fraud, or if they are discontinuing that insurance product. In the latter case, they must give you a chance to buy other plans they sell to groups of your size.

New Mexico Health insurers offer a variety of small group health plan policies. As a small employer, you must be offered a choice of all these plans. In addition, if you are a small employer with 2 to 50 eligible employees, or if you are self–employed and buying coverage for yourself and at least one other family member, you may also obtain coverage through the New Mexico Health Insurance Alliance.

Usually, if you are self–employed with no other workers, you are not eligible to buy a group health plan on your own outside of the New Mexico Health Insurance Alliance, Small Employer Insurance Program and the State Coverage Insurance Program. Therefore, the laws that protect employers’ access to group health plans do not apply to you. Your access to health insurance is protected by the laws that apply to individuals.

If you are self–employed and buy your own health insurance, you may be eligible to deduct 100% of the cost of your premium from your federal income tax.

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