The group health plan is just that, a health insurance plan that provides insurance to a group of people. Most usually this is going to be in a company but it can also be a union or a qualifying community or professional organization as well.

A group health insurance plan is either administered to the group that the people belong too or the group or company might choose to outsource it to another company to handle the benefits.

When it comes to the tried and true group health plans there are no preexisting condition exclusions of any kind, benefits are available for everyone and there is usually just the standard 30 day elimination period before your benefits will kick in at your company.

Group Health Plan Benefit Package

Almost always you’ll find that companies or a government body will extend these benefits automatically as part of an employee package. The insured member under the group health plan is likely to still be responsible for deductibles and copayments and possibly a partial payment of the premium which is usually always deducted from the paycheck. There are some rare cases where the entire health care package is paid for as well as other cases where it’s done on a reimbursement basis.

Since companies will get bulk rate discounts for the groups of employees you’ll find in almost all instances that this coverage is going to be cheaper than if you were to get an individual policy.

Covered Benefit and Exclusion

Sometimes there can be coverage exclusions and/or an obligated waiting period before benefits will kick in. If the employee should have insurance already there will be a determination made as to whether or not the group health insurance plan is going to be the main insurer or the secondary.

Definition of Group Health Plan

In order to qualify for a group health insurance plan the company or organization needs to cover at least 50 people. Any group that is smaller than that and wants to offer group health insurance coverage most likely will not be eligible for certain discounts and benefits as most of the offered discounts come when the company purchases the coverage in bulk.