THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, December 12, 1994 TAG: 9412120048
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WILSON LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
Affordable health care coverage could be available by June to thousands of small business employees and their families in eastern North Carolina, following action today by a state panel.
The State Plan Purchasing Alliance Board meets here to choose one of two regional chambers of commerce to develop a health care plan.
Under a board timetable, health insurance could be available through the program next summer.
In November, the Eastern North Carolina Chamber of Commerce, a regional chamber of commerce representing businesses from a 43-county area in the eastern third of the state, and the Chambers of Eastern North Carolina, a group comprising local chambers from eastern North Carolina, presented health insurance proposals to the board.
The Eastern Chamber asked the board for a grant of about $800,000 for four years to develop and implement a plan to provide insurance to small businesses in 43 counties east of Interstate 95, while the Chambers of Eastern North Carolina asked for a grant of $400,000 for two years for an insurance plan for 39 eastern counties.
The plans would offer a health insurance package to businesses with less than 50 employees.
Under the plans, small businesses come together to form an alliance which makes health insurance coverage available to the group at much lower rates than the businesses could obtain on their own. And insurance offered through the alliance would eliminate restrictions on so-called ``pre-existing conditions,'' or health insurance problems that exist at the time or before insurance is purchased.
Nearly 67 percent of the 1 million people in North Carolina without health insurance are full-time workers and their families. These workers lack insurance because their employers do not offer health care insurance or offer health insurance too costly for their employees, or the workers cannot buy insurance under their employers' plans because of poor health, according to the Duke Center for Health Policy Research.
Employees of small firms, which form one of the largest employers in eastern North Carolina, are less likely to have health insurance than employees of large firms, according to Duke statistics.
To help small businesses and their employees throughout North Carolina, the General Assembly allocated $4.5 million last year to establish a statewide system of small business purchasing alliances.
Under the plan, potential alliance sponsors apply to the health alliance board for approval of their regional plan and one-time, start-up funding of their programs.
In May the Asheville-based Western North Carolina Health Alliance received a $50,000 grant from the state health alliance board and became the state's first health alliance. by CNB