Small businesses in South Carolina now have a way to save money on health insurance. The state's first health insurance cooperative is accepting applications for membership.
The South Carolina Health Cooperative is a private, non-profit organization that allows small businesses to band together to get lower health insurance rates, since rates are mostly determined by the size of a group.
By joining together, the small businesses form one large insurance pool that benefits from that strength in numbers.
SCHP president and CEO Cooper Littlejohn says the cooperative could help improve the state's high unemployment rate.
"If small businesses in South Carolina are saving money, then they're helping pour that money back into their businesses and hopefully employing more people, because 8 in 10 of every South Carolinian that's employed are employed by small business," he says.
He says the competition could also lower health insurance rates for everyone. It could also lower prices for consumers.
Small business owner Fred Price, owner of ACE Glass in Columbia, says, "I'm the owner of the business and if I'm able to not pay as much for health care I can certainly pass that savings along to my customers."
The SCHC is not only the first health insurance cooperative in the state but one of just a few nationwide. Littlejohn is also one of the youngest health care executives in the country at just 20 years old.
"As I travel across the state meeting with business owners and learning about the challenges they face dealing with health insurance, it is clear that the co-op structure will be of great value to business owners and their employees by cutting insurance costs and creating long-term rate stability," Littlejohn says.
"Our organization will help small businesses lower insurance costs and make those costs more predictable, thus giving them more money to reinvest in growing their businesses," he says.
He won't know how much the businesses can save until after he knows how many businesses join the co-op. Businesses with between 2 and 50 employees can sign up.
For more information, you can go to the co-op's website at http://schealthco-op.com.
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