Crickets Chirping for NY's Small Biz Insurance Exchange
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
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Obamacare backers didn’t expect a stampede into
SHOP, but in New York and elsewhere, the small business health exchange
has struggled more than anticipated.
(Natalie Fertig/WNYC)
Monteith Illingworth and Chris Abbate both have small public
relations firms in Manhattan. Both offer their employees health coverage
through Oxford Health, a division of insurance giant United Healthcare. Both faced double-digit premium hikes last year. And both considered hitting the eject button to buy coverage from the New York State of Health, the new insurance marketplace.
Illingworth didn’t.
“My instincts told me it was too soon,” said Illingworth, president of Monteith & Company, who has four employees. “I didn’t want to take the risk the first year.”
Abbate signed up.
“I was willing to take a chance,” said Abbate, president of Novita Communications, with 10 employees.
She is in a distinct minority. New York’s health exchange garnered almost a million people, with about 600,000 people getting Medicaid, 400,000 people getting individual plans and just 10,000 getting employer-based small business plans, through the Small Business Health Options Program, or SHOP.
SHOP is an optional program for workplaces with 50 or fewer employees. It has been slow to get off the ground around the country, with 18 states, including New Jersey, postponing its implementation, at least until 2016. California, a much more populous state than New York, has 1.4 million people in its exchange overall, but under 5,000 in SHOP.
Officials at the New York State of Health say the big push last year and earlier this year has been in the individual market, and they hope to build momentum in the coming months and years for the small-business product.
“We’re clearly very much in the early adopter phase,” said Kelly Smith, the state Health Department official in charge of SHOP.
Illingworth said he could imagine insuring his workers through the state program in a few years time.
"Anytime there's a sea change in regulation in pretty much anything, experience has taught me that if you can, try and wait to see how it shakes out," he said.
For Abbate, the risk was worth it. She is paying the same amount per employee as she did last year. Using SHOP allows her workers to choose from a menu of insurance plans, depending on how much they want to contribute to the overall policy.
"We have one employee who’s a new mother, and she wanted more of a fuller package, and another employee who’s really young, right out of college," she said. "So we could actually allow them to make a decision about how much they want to contribute, once they knew our company’s contribution to their plan."
For herself and her family of four, Abbate chose a platinum plan through Health Republic. She estimates she is saving $200-$300 a month over Oxford.
"We're only a few months into it, but so far, so good," she said.
New York will need a lot more like her to reach its goal of 450,000 people insured through the SHOP exchange by 2016.
(Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled the name of Chris Abbate.)
Illingworth didn’t.
“My instincts told me it was too soon,” said Illingworth, president of Monteith & Company, who has four employees. “I didn’t want to take the risk the first year.”
Abbate signed up.
“I was willing to take a chance,” said Abbate, president of Novita Communications, with 10 employees.
She is in a distinct minority. New York’s health exchange garnered almost a million people, with about 600,000 people getting Medicaid, 400,000 people getting individual plans and just 10,000 getting employer-based small business plans, through the Small Business Health Options Program, or SHOP.
SHOP is an optional program for workplaces with 50 or fewer employees. It has been slow to get off the ground around the country, with 18 states, including New Jersey, postponing its implementation, at least until 2016. California, a much more populous state than New York, has 1.4 million people in its exchange overall, but under 5,000 in SHOP.
Officials at the New York State of Health say the big push last year and earlier this year has been in the individual market, and they hope to build momentum in the coming months and years for the small-business product.
“We’re clearly very much in the early adopter phase,” said Kelly Smith, the state Health Department official in charge of SHOP.
Illingworth said he could imagine insuring his workers through the state program in a few years time.
"Anytime there's a sea change in regulation in pretty much anything, experience has taught me that if you can, try and wait to see how it shakes out," he said.
For Abbate, the risk was worth it. She is paying the same amount per employee as she did last year. Using SHOP allows her workers to choose from a menu of insurance plans, depending on how much they want to contribute to the overall policy.
"We have one employee who’s a new mother, and she wanted more of a fuller package, and another employee who’s really young, right out of college," she said. "So we could actually allow them to make a decision about how much they want to contribute, once they knew our company’s contribution to their plan."
For herself and her family of four, Abbate chose a platinum plan through Health Republic. She estimates she is saving $200-$300 a month over Oxford.
"We're only a few months into it, but so far, so good," she said.
New York will need a lot more like her to reach its goal of 450,000 people insured through the SHOP exchange by 2016.
(Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled the name of Chris Abbate.)
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Editors:
Julianne WelbyMore in:
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Fred Mogul, Reporter, WNYC News
Fred Mogul has been covering healthcare and medicine for WNYC since 2002.
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