Tiny Tim, Crutches, and What Healthcare I Should Provide to My Startup Employees
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Alright gangsters. Here's the deal. Let's set the stage again. You had your idea. Worddd. You tested your Problem-Solution fit. Worddd. You tested your Product-Market fit. Worddd. You're cranking away with customers / users, whatevs. And you're making monies honies. You built up a team with your co-founders. You're around eight employees. Something like that. And you're blowing your shit up through sales, because you're a #boss. Your employees are now in their mid 20's. They've been working for a year alongside you. Fully faithful, loyal gangsters. Working hard. And Tiny Tim, your hardest working employee, who walks with a gimp but who is the fucking man comes up to you and says: "Ryan. My crutch broke last week for the sixth time. I'm struggling man. My legs are busted to shit. Do you think we could get healthcare now?"
AND YOU SAY: "Tiny Tim. Quit your bitching."
Just kidding. You say... "Ya man. Let's do it."
Now what?
Great question. Here's what I recommend.
First off. Work with a group like Telamon Insurance. I've been working with them for two+ years at CampusLIVE and I wouldn't know what I'd do without them. They go out and get quotes (aka... how much all this shit is gonna cost) from all of the healthcare providers in town (Blue Cross Blue Shield, Harvard Pilgrim, Fallon, etc) and give you all of the competitive rates together. You then pick a plan (either they have the best rate or the best health plan for your team) and Telamon then helps take care of setting up all of your employees on the health plan. They show you how to fill out the health care enrollment forms (which allow you to sign individual employees up to the company plan). They give everyone in the company information on what is and what is not covered. They go over what "deductibles" and "copays" are so that everyone knows the deal (I'm sure you've heard these terms growing up from your mom when you were at the doctor's office). And they are there to answer all questions you have about what the hellllll to do. Plus, they also handle all COBRA and HIPPA related things. When you work with a group like Telamon, you get to hand off a lot of the annoying paperwork to someone else while you focus on growing your business. You get someone to ask 1,000,000 questions to when they come up. I'm lucky to have them by my side. And it just makes clear sense as a business decision.
By the way, what health care plan do we have at CampusLIVE? We have Blue Cross Blue Shield. Medical and dental. It's very typical for the company to cover 80% of the plan, while the employee covers 20%. Average health care cost is on average $500 per month per employee. Of that $500 per month, about $450 of it is medical and $50 is dental. You do the math. It's clearly cheap as shit to provide dental to your employees. And for a bunch of young people who maybe don't brush twice per day every day of their lives (just sayin), it's not the worst idea in the world and is certainly an added perk.
If you have any more questions on health plans, specifically regarding the setting up of one, all of the paperwork, etc... hit me up and let me know. Happy to help answer your ????s.
My name is Ryan Durkin. I write so that I will never forget where I came from and what I stand for. I hope that this will motivate young people to realize their potential and become more productive than they ever imagined. That would make me truly happy.
