The Qualified Small Employer HRA: under 50 full-time equivalents, no group plan, a cap of $6,450 single / $13,100 family (2026), reimbursements that reduce the employee's marketplace credit dollar for dollar.
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The QSEHRA is the small-business HRA with a ceiling. It is the simplest formal benefit a business with a handful of W-2 staff can offer, and the one most likely to be the wrong choice for low-paid staff who already get a large credit.
A group quote, an ICHRA costing and the owner’s own plan all start from the same census: who is on payroll, their ages and home counties. Enter your ZIP and a licensed agent runs all four routes for your business, free.
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Unlike an ICHRA, a QSEHRA never makes an employee ineligible for the marketplace credit; it reduces the credit by the amount of the allowance. For an employee whose credit is already large, a $300 allowance can leave them exactly where they were, with the employer out $300. For an employee over the credit line, the full allowance is a real benefit. Run the team’s pay against the 2027 credit table before setting it.
Sole proprietors, partners and more-than-2%% S-corp owners cannot participate. A one-person business has nobody to offer it to.
Two to six full-time staff, pay above the credit range or in several states, no appetite for a group plan’s participation rules and renewals. When pay is low or headcount is in the 10-25 range with modest wages, compare a group plan with the Form 8941 credit instead.