Easing The Pain Of Expensive Health Care

Roughly 63% of all uninsured workers are either self-employed or work for firms with fewer than 100 employees, and only 47% of businesses with fewer than 500 employees offer health insurance, down from 58% in 1997. How can entrepreneurs ease the pain for themselves and their employees?

Mountain View, Calif.-based eHealth (nasdaq: EHTH - news - people ), an online health insurance brokerage, is trying to offer at least a smidge of relief with something called BusinessHSA. The new Web-based system lets employers set aside pre-tax contributions to employees' health savings accounts (HSAs), thus helping to defray costs while not offering a full-scale health benefits program. The service also gives employers a chance to help educate employees befuddled by the tortuously complicated health care market.