Expanding Health Insurance Coverage for Sole Proprietors And Employees of Small Business: A Planning Process

This NYHealth special report, Expanding Health Insurance Coverage for Sole Proprietors And Employees of Small Business: A Planning Process, contains a summary of findings from the 2008 NYHealth request for proposals (RFP), “Expanding Coverage Options in the Small Group and Individual Market in New York State.”

The report assesses a group of early Foundation investments that supported projects and policy analyses aimed at restructuring or strengthening the individual and small-group insurance market.

The objective of this Small-Group Market Coverage initiative was to yield entrepreneurial ideas for expanding coverage to small businesses and sole proprietors. The initiative allowed grantees to examine options for increasing access to health insurance, including extending the State-subsidized Healthy NY and Family Health Plus programs to small employers, aggregating small employers into larger units that could purchase insurance at lower cost, and launching marketing programs targeted to small employers.

The five grants funded under this RFP addressed a range of solutions and action steps necessary for expanding health insurance options for small businesses and sole proprietors in New York State:

• Manufacturers Association of the Southern Tier: Small Business Access Health Insurance Initiative
• New York Health Purchasing Alliance, Inc., d/b/a HealthPass: HealthPass-Healthy NY Integration
• New York State Catholic Health Plan, Inc., d/b/a Fidelis Care New York: Leveraging Coverage Through “Employer Partnerships For Family Health Plus”
• Plattsburgh North County Chamber of Commerce: Overcoming Tri-Lakes Small Business Barriers to Offering Employees Health Insurance
• S2AY Rural Health Network Inc.: Making it Easy; Planning a Rural Strategy to Increase Enrollment in Healthy NY