South Carolina Health Cooperative

There have been many changes made to Carolina health insurance over the years, but more are coming. This includes a South Carolina health cooperative designed to help small businesses pay for health care for their employees. With health care costs making or breaking a small business, any help they can get will be valuable.

The South Carolina Health Cooperative (SCHC) combines many different types of companies together to create a pool that applies for health insurance. SCHC structures plans over the long term which protects smaller companies from unexpected rate increases. SCHC is the first approved cooperative in the state which happened this month.

The co-op is available for small businesses with 2-50 employees and the application process has been started. The best thing about this type of pool is that the more people that sign up, the more negotiating power there is to get low rates from the health insurance companies.

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.

Colorado Small Business Health Insurance

A Senate committee approved a controversial health insurance bill that would prohibit health insurance companies from using health status and claims history in determining rates for small businesses.

Supporters of the bill call it an important step toward reforming Colorado's health care system, saying it will make health insurance more affordable and accessible for businesses with 50 or fewer employees. Critics argued the bill would undermine efforts to stabilize rates that are encouraging major insurers to re-enter the small-company market.

Under a law passed in 2003, health insurance companies can offer discounts of up to 25 percent for healthy groups but can charge less healthy groups up to 10 percent more.

Small business health insurance

House Bill 1355

• What it does: Prohibits health insurers from using health status and claims history in determining rates for small businesses.

• Supporters say: It prevents insurance companies from penalizing small businesses if employees or their families have been sick.

• Opponents say: Since rating flexibility was implemented, rates have stabilized and more health insurers are doing business in the state. This bill would reverse that.