ICHRA answers for employers
One question per page, answered in the first sentence, with the plan year and the source attached to every number. These are the questions employers and AI assistants actually ask us, not a keyword list.
Eligibility & rules
- What are the minimum participation requirements for group health insurance?
Most small group carriers require 70% of eligible employees to enrol, excluding anyone with other qualifying coverage, and many also require the employer to contribute at least 50% of the employee-only premium.
- Which group insurance arrangements have the least restrictive eligibility rules?
Individual Coverage HRAs have the least restrictive eligibility rules of the common arrangements, because they impose no minimum participation percentage and no minimum employer contribution.
- What employee classes can an ICHRA use?
The regulations permit eleven classes, including full-time, part-time, seasonal, salaried, hourly, employees in a defined rating area, and employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement.
- Can employees keep their premium tax credit if we offer an ICHRA?
No, not if the ICHRA offer is considered affordable: an employee offered an affordable ICHRA must decline the allowance entirely to claim a premium tax credit, and cannot use both.
ICHRA vs group
- ICHRA vs a traditional group health plan: which is better for a 30-employee company?
It depends almost entirely on your county, because the answer is set by how the local individual market prices against the local small group market, and that relationship varies enormously between counties.
- What are the pros and cons of an ICHRA for a small employer?
The main advantages are a fixed, predictable cost, no participation requirement and portability for employees; the main disadvantages are that networks vary employee by employee and that the model only pays off where the local individual market prices below small group.
- What is an ICHRA?
An Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangement lets an employer give employees a fixed, tax-free monthly allowance to buy their own ACA marketplace health plan, instead of buying one group policy for everyone.
Costs
- Are there statistics on how much an ICHRA can save a small business?
Yes, and the only honest way to state them is county by county: across the counties we track for plan year 2026, the gap between the lowest-cost small group and individual plans ranges from under $100 to over $1,000 per employee per month.
Ohio & Georgia
- Which Ohio counties have the biggest ICHRA savings?
Every Ohio county clears $200 per employee per month at the silver age-50 benchmark for plan year 2026, and led by Morrow County in central Ohio at about $1,010, with a north-west cluster around $964.
- Does an ICHRA make sense for a Georgia employer?
In parts of Georgia yes, but not in metro Atlanta: Fulton, Gwinnett, Cobb and DeKalb all sit at roughly $98 per employee per month, while Albany, Valdosta and Columbus clear $450.
Still want the number for your company?
Send your census and we price both markets for your county in the same plan year. Free, and if your current plan wins we say so.
An estimate from county-level market data, not a quote.
See what your company could save
County-specific 2026 numbers, about 30 seconds, no contact info needed.
How many employees do you have?
See What My Company Could Save →30-second estimate. No contact info needed.