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Health plan has few takers

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By Josh Sweigart, Staff Writer 5:29 PM Thursday, April 9, 2009

HAMILTON — A local initiative that offers affordable, basic health coverage to the uninsured could be a vital stop-gap for companies contemplating layoffs or reducing benefits, according to program administrators.

But the program has seen little growth in the past year.

Roughly 100 people from 50 companies in Butler County take part in HealthShare, according to Karen Mueller, executive vice president of Cincinnati-based Horan Associates, which administers the program.

“Getting employers to agree to offer the plan has been our biggest challenge,” said Mueller. “It takes time, and right now employers are struggling to figure out if their business is going to be open or not.”

“This may be an option for employers that are considering dropping benefits, who are going through reductions...(or another option than COBRA) for people who are laid off,” Mueller said.

For $76 per individual or $187 per family per month, HealthShare pays a portion of office visits and hospital stays. The program has partnered with local community health centers to accept HealthShare benefits as full payment for some services.

It’s nowhere near as comprehensive as traditional health coverage, Mueller said, but it’s far better than nothing at all.

Joan Potter-Sommer, executive director of Oxford Senior Citizens Inc., said HealthShare helped one of her employees “immensely” when she suffered an eye injury.

The agency can’t afford to offer its employees full coverage, Potter-Sommer said, but pays half the premium for its employees who don’t have insurance through a spouse.

“I appreciate having it, being able to offer it to our employees,” she said.

Butler County Commissioner Gregory Jolivette, who helped create the program, said health insurance is more important than ever in this economy.

Jolivette said he is looking at initiatives, such as one in Howard County, Maryland, that offers coverage directly to residents instead of partnering with employers as HealthShare does.

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