Communities back health insurance plan

Health coverage pool would include businesses, towns, self-employed



By Paul Swiech



METAMORA -- About 30 small municipalities in Illinois -- including Metamora, Dwight and Emden -- are backing a plan to reduce health insurance premium increases by putting small businesses and towns, self-employed individuals and people without access to health insurance in the same pool.

Metamora Village President Matt O'Shea co-wrote a letter to nearly 1,100 Illinois mayors and village presidents asking for their support of Healthy Illinois.



"Health care costs are skyrocketing for our village, as they are for others," O'Shea said Monday. "This would be a way to create a pool for small businesses and municipalities, which would reduce rates for employees and costs to taxpayers."



Metamora has 20 full- and part-time employees and their premium increases averaged 24 percent in 2004, he said.



This year, projections call for increases averaging 18 percent, he said.



Meanwhile, O'Shea also is seeing costs go up to the four employees of his business, Illini Automation, which provides building automation software for business and institutional clients.



Short-term, municipalities and businesses are looking at raising deductibles and doing other things to switch the burden to employees. But long-term, pooling employees of small businesses and towns, self-employed workers and those without access to job-related health insurance may be the best solution, he said.



Legislation calling for the initiative will be introduced to the Illinois General Assembly late this month or early February, said Lindsey Marcus, campaign director of Illinois for Health Care. Illinois for Health Care (part of the Service Employees International Union) and the organization Citizen Action/Illinois are behind Healthy Illinois and are getting small businesses, governments and community organizations involved, she said.



"We targeted the small municipalities because they are facing a crunch because of rising health care costs and are looking for ways to control the budgets because of the increasing burden on taxpayers," Marcus said. The Service Employees' union includes secretaries, janitors and health care workers.



If approved by the General Assembly and governor, Healthy Illinois would create a pool that would spread the insurance risk over a large population and keep cost increases down. O'Shea said 2 million people could be eligible for the pool.