Mass. Health Connector Helping Small Businesses
This time last year, the trouble people had trying to enroll online for health care made Obamacare the brunt of much criticism and was widely reported, but what was little known is that small businesses had it much worse - the federal government just gave up even trying to enroll busi- nesses online.
Now, with the Affordable Care Act open enrollment period back again, the federal government fi- nally made the move to include small businesses in online enroll- ment - and the system actually seems to be working - but the only problem is few small busi- nesses seem to care.
The federal Small Business Health Options Program, known as SHOP, is set up to help compa- nies with 50 or fewer workers get better deals for employee health coverage, under the requirements of The Affordable Care Act. Set- ting up an online SHOP market- place, like a similar version for individuals, is supposed to be the easiest way to get the best deal.
Perhaps small businesses owners are still holding a grudge from being pushed aside last year, but after a couple of weeks of open enrollment the numbers are poor. Federal officials are not saying just how many small busi- nesses are offering health cover- age through SHOP plans, but the Centers of
Critics are not impressed.
The government is saying it expects SHOP to be a success, for one, because small businesses will no longer be able to renew pre- Obamacare health plans that pro- vided less coverage and cost less, which was an option last year.
And Obamacare officials say SHOP saves businesses money, which looks to be true. Research- ers at the University of
This savings represents about
In
$tarte d in 2009, as part of Mas- sachusetts' health reform law, the Health Connector has been offer- ing what the federal government seemed to be just dreaming about last year and only now seems to be managing - an online market- place to get the best health insur- ance deals.
"We are one-stop shopping for 10 different health insurance carriers and five different dental carriers representing 100 differ- ent plans," said
The Health Connector works with business owners and health insurance brokers and has all the big players in health insurance in the state, including
According to Kerrigan, the va- riety of options and savings has at- tracted many small businesses to the program since its launch and continues to grow.
Not surprisingly, the Obama administration's struggles to get the federal SHOP online market- place up-and-running did impact the Health Connector.
"We compete against a lot of press this year that said the SHOP website was broken and people thought our website was broken. It wasn't," Kerrigan said.
Obamacare regulations also impacted the Health Connec- tor numbers, but the organiza- tion rallied and has doubled the amount of businesses that use it. Prior to the Affordable Care Act, the Health Connector had 5,000 members, but the new laws meant the self-employed could not get health insurance as a small busi- ness, which eliminated half of those a year ago. However, Kerri- gan says the Health Connector is already back to 5,000 users - all of which are small businesses.
Savings, such as those offered by the Health Connector's Well- ness Program, are also a big draw for the state's small businesses. The wellness program could save some businesses 15 percent on health insurance. In addition, the federal government also offers small business health care tax credits through participation in program's such as the Massachu- setts Health Connector - with possible savings as much as 50 percent on the employer's share of health insurance premiums.
Officials at the
Their thinking is that it doesn't matter how the state's small busi- nesses get their health insurance coverage, only that they get it.
" We have definitely been doing some training throughout the last few years, because it is so important for small business to know what is going on," said
In fact, the SBA offers a weekly, live webinar series for small busi- ness owners on the basics of the Affordable Care Act and how to enroll in SHOP.
Hunt says the Massachusetts Health Connector is an import- ant resource for the state small businesses.
"They are really the experts and we try to funnel businesses to the experts," she said.
"We are one-stop shopping for 10 different health insurance carriers and five different dental carriers represen ting 100 different plans. "
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