As an HR consultant, I see small businesses struggle with insurance costs. Especially those that are just starting out. They want to offer benefits to their employees but are challenged with balancing the pendulum of cash flow and employee retention.
Small businesses that have less than 50 employees are rated differently with insurance carriers. They don’t have what’s called a “composite rating,” which means it’s a set price per type. We’ve all seen this: employee-only cost, employee plus one, family, etc.
Companies under 50 employees are what they call “age ”banded”—this means it’s a different price for every employee based on their age. This is a pain.
It’s hard to budget annually, because who knows what it will be if you hire a few more people—because you don’t know what their age will be. It’s more or less based on certain factors—a big one is for women in childbearing years.

The insurance company has this down to a science, of course. They know what to do to make sure their profits are covered, but for a small business in this situation, you can’t forecast this unless you don’t plan to hire anyone—and how can you know if someone is going to resign, move, etc.? You don’t. You can’t. Making this so much harder.
