Small Businesses Could Buy Health Insurance for Nearly 10 Million People Through New Health Insurance Exchanges

There are a number of reasons why I think Wisconsin should resume planning for the possibility that the Supreme Court upholds the Constitutionality of the federal health care reform law (known as the Affordable Care Act or ACA). In fact, even if the law is overturned, planning efforts are needed to pave the way for a bipartisan state effort to make much-needed health care reforms.

An editorial Wednesday in the Appleton Post Crescent lays out some of the reasons why it was short-sighted to turn back the federal funding for ACA implementation of health care reform.  Another significant reason was elucidated by an article in the February issue of Health Affairs, which explains that state health insurance exchanges for small businesses are estimated to cover nearly 10 million people, in addition to the 15.3 million who will gain coverage through the individual exchanges when the ACA is fully implemented. The article, by Fredric Blavin and colleagues at The Urban Institute, is one of a group of articles in the journal examining the Small Business Health Care Options Program (SHOP), the formal name for the small business exchanges. Under the Affordable Care Act, the SHOP exchanges, along with the exchanges for individuals, are expected to be open for business on January 1, 2014.  Developing an effective exchange that helps small Wisconsin businesses, which now face high premiums and administrative costs when they insure their workers, should be a broadly shared goal of state lawmakers. Under the ACA, the SHOP exchanges, like the exchanges for individuals, are to be in place by January 1, 2014, and states that plan to administer their own exchanges need to submit their plans to federal officials by the beginning of 2013.

A Feb. 8 post (Making the SHOP Exchanges Work) on the Commonwealth Fund Blog by Timothy Jost at Washington and Lee University Law School helps explain the importance of the SHOP exchanges and what it will take for them to be successful.  In addition, the Commonwealth Fund and The Small Business Majority are co-hosting a webinar, The Small Business Health Insurance Exchanges: Opportunities and Challenges, on February 22 at 1:00 p.m.

Jon Peacock