Group health insurance is essentially insurance provided to members of a group at a discounted rate by insurers. The insurers are able to provide this coverage at a discount because they're taking on a pool of insureds that they can spread the risk out among.

For many employers, group health insurance is perhaps the most important fringe benefit they offer because its advantageous tax-wise to both employers and employees. Employers benefit because they get a tax deduction for offering coverage. Employees benefit because compensation their employers provide them with to meet premiums is untaxed.Employer-based group health insurance has a broad reach. About 60 percent of Americans with private health coverage receive it from an employer-based group health insurance plan.

Unfortunately, anywhere from between 10 and 40 million Americans have no coverage at all, government provided or private health insurance. In recent years there have been some trends in the group health insurance field that have contributed to the number of uninsured and, unchecked, may result in even greater numbers of uninsured.