For purposes of small group health insurance, a small employer is defined as a business that has 2 to 150 employees. Employees include business owners, partners in a partnership, and officers and directors of a corporation, as well as other hourly and salaried employees.

The following are the small employer eligibilty requirements for group health insurance in Texas:

► At least 2 full-time eligible employees must participate in a small group health insurance plan offered by their employer in order for a small employer group to qualify for small group health insurance and participation in a small employer health coalition.

• Full-time employees are defined as those employees who work 30 hours or more weekly.
• Eligible employees can include a business owner, partners, officers and directors of a corporation and W2 employees.
• Full-time 1099 contract employees can participate in a qualified small group health insurance plan or small employer health coalition but cannot count toward the 'eligible employee' requirement.

• When there are only 2 full-time eligible employees, both must participate.
• A business with 3 full-time eligible employees must have at least 2 participate.
• For a business with 4 or more full-time eligible employees, at least 75% of the full-time eligible employees who do not have individual or group health insurance elsewhere must participate. Full-time employees who have individual or group health insurance elsewhere are excluded from the 75% participation requirement while some carriers exclude only those employees who have group health insurance elsewhere.