What Is A Group Health Insurance? 
Group health insurance is a health insurance policy or plan -LRB- depending upon how it is funded -RRB- that is provided by an employer for its employees or through an organization such as a labor union for its members . In a group health insurance policy situation the employer is the actual policy holder and its employees and covered dependents are subscribers who receive a certificate of coverage . In this context the employee 's health insurance is tied to their place of employment and while -LRB- depending upon the size of the group -RRB- there are state and federal laws that allow for an ex-employee to continue their coverage through the group plan for some defined period of time , eventually a former employee will lose access to their ex-employer 's group plan and have to replace it coverage from a new employer or individual health insurance . With the latest round of implementation of the Affordable Care Act -LRB- ACA -RRB- effective January 1 , 2014 group health insurance is in many ways more complicated than ever before . For instance , employers in the 2 to 50 employee market segment in the vast majority of statesnow operate in a community rated situation and are finding that new benefit plan designs are being presented to them that may differ significantly from their current rate structures and plan designs . Fully insured ACA compliant health plans for the 2 to 50 market segment are now guaranteed to be issued , are not subject to underwriting and can have no pre-existing condition exclusions or waiting periods -LRB- just to highlight some of the most major changes -RRB- . Larger sized groups , while they are certainly impacted by the effects of the ACA , are still operating under a mix of the old rules and the new ones . So , right now groups with 51 + employees are still subject to underwriting , though the new ACA rules will be migrating up the ladder to apply to groups in the 51 to 99 employee range in the future . There will be groups who will be winners and losers under the requirements of the ACA and depending upon the composition of the group and its average income levels for its workforce , some employers may find that providing group health insurance is no longer in the best financial interest of many of their employees when compared with the subsidized individual health insurance that many of their employees could qualify for . If you are an employer faced with these issues and are looking for experienced guidance on these matters please feel free to contact me for a consultation . 