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Small Business Health Insurance: Costs, Trends and Insights 2017 (PDF)

"[T]he cost of small business coverage selected at eHealth increased by 8 percent between 2016 and 2017, after decreasing by one percent between 2015 and 2016.... Nearly 80 percent of small business owners say they worry about the cost of coverage; more than 6 in 10 (62 percent) said that a 15 percent increase in premiums would make their current group health insurance coverage unaffordable ... A majority of small business customers purchased silver plans in 2017; nearly half (47 percent) of small business owners say they currently pay 75-100 percent of their employees' monthly premiums."

Small Businesses Health Insurance: Costs, Trends and Insights 2018 (PDF)

17 presentation slides. "The average per-person premium for small business health insurance plans decreased 2 percent between 2017 ($416) and 2018 ($409).... The average individual deductible for small business plans increased 14 percent between 2017 ($2,754) and 2018 ($3,140).... In 2018, the average premium per-person under a small business plan was 7 percent lower than the average premium for an individual plan ($409 vs. $440)."

Essential Employee Benefit Trends for Small Businesses in 2025

"Small businesses are increasingly offering financial education programs, debt management assistance, and employer-sponsored savings plans.... In 2025, many are turning to innovative [health plan] solutions like level-funded plans and captives to help contain costs while enhancing the benefits offered to employees.... Comprehensive mental health coverage not only supports employee well-being but also reduces absenteeism and increases productivity."

Small Businesses Health Insurance: Costs, Trends and Insights 2018 (PDF)

17 presentation slides. "In 2018, the average monthly premium for groups with 5 or fewer employees was $419 per covered person; the average monthly premium for groups with 6 to 29 employees was $364 per covered person, or 13 percent less.... The average individual deductible for small business plans increased 14 percent between 2017 ($2,754) and 2018 ($3,140).... In 2018, the average premium per-person under a small business plan was 7 percent lower than the average premium for an individual plan ($409 vs. $440)."

Post-ACA Trends in Health Coverage for Small Businesses: Views from the Market (PDF)

"Some states are not closely monitoring enrollment in small-group markets ... The SHOP continues to have a minimal enrollment ... In some states, a significant proportion of small-group employers remain in non-ACA-compliant plans ... Some small employers are dropping health coverage with an expectation that employees will shift to the individual marketplace ... In some states, small employers appear to be shifting away from association health plans, while other types of group purchasing arrangements may be gaining a foothold for future growth." [5-page executive summary; 14-page full report is also available.]

How Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance Differs at Big and Small Businesses

"Self-insurance is more common at larger business establishments.... Multiple plan offerings are more common at larger establishments.... Waiting periods are more common at larger establishments.... Individual premiums are slightly higher in smaller establishments, but family premiums are lower.... Co-pays and coinsurance are higher in smaller establishment plans."

Small Business Benefits: Cost-Effective Strategies for Maximizing ROI (PDF)

16 pages. Excerpt: Since 2002, MetLife has tracked and analyzed small business employer and employee attitudes toward workplace benefits through its annual MetLife Study of Employee Benefits Trends. While traditionally, small business employees (except where indicated small business is defined as employers with 2 - 499 employees) express less satisfaction with their workplace benefits overall than their large-company counterparts, this may be due to the fact that smaller employers simply haven't offered as wide an array of benefits as larger employers. It's not that small business employers don't want to offer a wider array of benefits. They may simply lack the ability to do so cost-effectively given their resources.

How the Small Business Health Insurance Market Is Faring

"Enrollment has diminished steadily, but not precipitously, in the ACA-regulated small-group market. This decline continues the trend that preceded the ACA, in part because of employers choosing to self-insure ... [P]remiums ... have increased, on average, at a rate of 5 percent a year, similar to the 4.5 percent average increase in the large-group market. This 5 percent annual increase is much lower than the double-digit annual increases that were common for small businesses in the decade prior to reform."

Small Business Health Insurance and the ACA: Views from the Market 2017

"[W]hile trends in premium and offer rates have remained relatively stable, many of the ACA's goals have been stymied by an expanded set of health plan choices for small business owners. The authors further find that these new options provide more affordable coverage for employers with healthy employees, but pose a risk to the small-group market as a whole."

Why Obamacare Helps Small Business -- and What That Means for the Rest of Us

"While the [ACA] was intended to link employment and health insurance, what it has really done is handed many small nimble interlocked businesses another leg-up against their large traditional mainframe competitors. For example ... 'new' pharma companies are really marketing departments that outsource manufacturing that, in turn, outsources supply management that outsources I.T. that outsources its cloud services. It's the only way they can compete. The new economics of health insurance will only accelerate similar trends in other manufacturing and service sectors of the economy."