Fro purposes of definition of health insurance in Texas, there is a difference between small employers and large employers according to state and federal mandates. For a small employer to be called just that, they will have to have no more than 50 employees that work full-time (actually 2 to 50 full-time employees). These employees that are defined as full-time must work at least 30 hours or more each week in order to qualify. That does not include temporary workers or seasonal workers.



With small employers, they are protected by some legal statutes. Some of them include coverage levels and increases in insurance rates. The thing with small employers is that with the health insurance law in Texas, they have to have the right amount of employees that are eligible for health insurance. It is not based on the number of total employees per say. With health insurance for small employers, it is mandatory that those eligible are offered health insurance coverage for themselves and their immediate families.

A health insurance carrier can mandate that at least three fourths of eligible employees from a small employer seek to get health coverage. With certain carriers, this can be part of how they will get their health care plan. Depending on the number of eligible employees, the law can mandate that not everyone has to participate. This can apply to health insurance in Texas.

Or if the number of employees is low, require them to have total participation of 100%, no exceptions. If the small employer includes spouses and maybe a few others, then the spouses must each get separate health insurance coverage. There would be no dependent sharing for either spouse. This applies to health insurance in Texas as well.

With the small employer, the ones that qualify for health care coverage are bound by the exact terms and conditions. No one can have anything different in their health insurance policy. If it were a larger employer, then the policies would be different. They could be more flexible because they have more people that would need or want coverage. The health insurance in Texas can dictate that.

However, whether it's a small employer or a large one, it is against the law to force a new employee to get health insurance in Texas in order to stay employed there. It is also against the law to single out any employee that can get health care coverage due to how old they are, medical history status or pre-existing conditions that they may have.

It is important that small employers follow the rules about health insurance in Texas. The small employer needs to know what is allowed and what is not allowed for their employees. To make sure that things are in order, they should consult their health insurance handbook or contact their health insurance representative. Having that in place will make things much smoother when it's time for employees to use their health insurance. They need to make sure that they are providing the right kind of health insurance to their employees.