Employers · Employee health insurance
Employee health insurance: what it is and how it is paid for
The group medical policy a company takes out for the people who work in it, paid through payroll or from the company's own account.
No general statute requires it: the company decides, sometimes because its collective agreement or an internal deal sets it and almost always because it wants to keep its people. So the first step is not asking for a price but knowing how many people join, how it will be paid and how that form of payment is taxed.
When it comes up
The labour adviser is preparing a new hire's payroll and the company asks whether to offer health cover instead of more salary.
A key person receives an offer from another company that includes health insurance, and theirs does not.
The company wants to pay for cover for the whole workforce and does not know whether it goes through payroll, flexible pay or the company's own account.
A group policy has been in place for years and nobody has checked who is still enrolled and who has already left.
What it usually covers in the Spanish market
- Medical care within a provider network
- General practice, specialists, diagnostic tests and hospital care with the centres and professionals contracted by the insurer, with or without co-payment depending on the option chosen.
- Simpler enrolment than an individual policy
- In a group policy the insurer usually sets access conditions for the group as a whole, health questions included, different from those it would put to each person separately.
- The family, if the company so decides
- Spouses and children can join the same policy, at a separate premium paid by the company or by the person themselves.
- Its own tax treatment
- The share of the premium the company pays is treated as the Spanish personal income tax law provides for this kind of pay, within the limits and conditions that law sets; the labour adviser applies it on the payslip.
What it usually does not cover
It does not replace social security or its contributions: it is private medical care, not a public benefit.
It does not pay salary during sick leave or severance on dismissal.
It does not cover pre-existing conditions or treatments subject to the waiting periods set in the wording.
The workplace accident capital required by the collective agreement is not handled by this policy: that is collective agreement insurance, a separate duty taken out separately.
What the initial review looks at in this case
How many people join, at what ages, and whether the collective agreement or a company deal already sets this cover.
How the premium will be paid, whether fully by the company, shared or through flexible pay, and how each form is treated on the payslip.
How joiners and leavers are handled during the year, which is where a group policy falls out of date.
Start with the employer risk and obligations file
Before talking policies, we analyse your case in writing: what your workforce looks like, what your agreement requires of you and what your current cover answers for. It is the file, a consultancy service that is invoiced: 390 or 590 EUR plus VAT depending on headcount. We reply within 1 business day and indicative delivery is one week.
Policy purchase is not available yet: we are building our carrier panel.
Indicative description. A company's actual obligations depend on its activity, its headcount and the collective agreement that applies to it; the exact scope of any cover is set by the wording and limits of the policy taken out.