Helping North Carolinians, small businesses with health insurance

I recently teamed up with the N.C. Chamber and Blue Cross in N.C. to announce a new kind of health insurance policy that will be available to small businesses and their employees.

The new plan, the first of its kind in North Carolina, is called Carolina HealthWorks. It’s a multiple employer welfare arrangement, also known by the acronym MEWA.

Finding affordable insurance has been a challenge for businesses and individuals alike. That’s especially true for small businesses. Many small business owners have told me about their struggles to find affordable healthcare for their employees.

As N.C. Chamber President Gary Salamido noted at a press conference announcing the new plan, small businesses are the lifeblood of North Carolina’s economy. There are more than one million small businesses employing nearly half of the state’s private workforce. Smaller employers face tough challenges when it comes to providing health insurance for their employees.

We’re constantly working hard on ways to make insurance more affordable to consumers. This plan, which is available to members of the N.C. Chamber and affiliate local chambers of commerce only, is one option that can make health insurance more affordable for small business owners.

Progress like this often involves the cooperation of a lot of others. Legislators gave strong bipartisan support to the legislation needed to pave the way for this new type of health insurance plan. Gov. Josh Stein also signed the legislation into law.

Finally, I want to give a big thank you to the review team at the Department of Insurance for going above and beyond, putting in extra hours, to give this plan the regulatory approval it needed.

I look forward to working with insurance, business and government leaders to find creative ways to help make health insurance more affordable to North Carolina residents.

N.C. Department of Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey.