Brooklyn's Progress
October/November 2007

BY JILL D’AMICO

In the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce’s 2006 Member Issues survey, Members were asked to rank the top obstacles to business growth in the borough. For the third year in a row, the increased cost of health insurance was the biggest hurdle for small businesses – a startling 62% of respondents were fed up.

Eight years ago, the Chamber set about to try and head that problem off and is now proud to announce that Brooklyn HealthWorks, the Chamber’s low-cost health insurance program for eligible small businesses, is reopen for enrollment to the entire borough, thanks to former Governor George Pataki agreeing to permanently fund the program by the New York State Insurance Department before he left office in 2006.

The program leveraged resources on the city, state and federal levels with foundation and private sector support to bring health insurance premiums down to a level that allows small business owners and their workers to consider buying health insurance again. 

“It’s helped to minimize health insurance costs, especially being self-employed,” said Rebecca Miller, owner of NYSketches, which has been enrolled in Brooklyn HealthWorks since its inception in 2004. “For the few people who work for us, it gives them an added benefit as well.”

Two products are currently being offered: Brooklyn HealthWorks Total and Brooklyn HealthWorks Max, which offer low monthly premiums ranging from $199 to $211 per person per month.

The criteria for participation are as follows:

• The business must be located in Brooklyn.
• The business enrolled is either a sole proprietorship, or has anywhere from 2 to 50 employees.
• The business must have been without health insurance for the past 12 months.
• 50% of employees must be enrolled in this or another plan.
• 30% of employees must earn a salary of $36,500 or less per year.

Members and their dependents can access GHI’s tri-state provider network, with 72,000 doctors and specialty health care providers and 1,100 hospitals in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, including every hospital in Brooklyn. The program also offers a prescription drug card.

Ms. Miller is pleased with the level of coverage the program offers and said it has only gotten better as the program has grown.

"It’s improved over the past few years, and it’s more comprehensive in terms of doctors we can go to.”

Support for HealthWorks
In addition to the governor, key support has come by the efforts of New York State Senator Martin Golden, Assemblyman Joseph Lentol and Assemblyman Pete Grannis, who chairs the Assembly Insurance Committee. The extra effort in Albany to get the legislation drafted and passed during the waning days of the legislative session in June was provided by Joni Yoswein, the Brooklyn Chamber’s government affairs consultant.

"The economy of Brooklyn depends on programs such as Brooklyn HealthWorks to keep business booming here in Kings County, and I am grateful for the leadership of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce,” said Senator Golden. “This program will insure that small business employees and owners have the means and access to health insurance for them and their families. Brooklyn and the families are the winners!"

The program is administered as a cooperative effort between the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce and Group Health Insurance, Inc. (GHI), and was created in conjunction with the New York State Insurance Department, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Health Resource & Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, and a consortium of other public and private organizations.
Brooklyn HealthWorks will be co-marketed with HealthPass, an innovative partnership between the New York Business Group on Health, the City of New York and the health insurance industry.  HealthPass allows the employees of eligible businesses to choose from over 30 coverage options to find the healthcare plan that best fits their medical needs and budgets.

Brooklyn’s Health
Brooklyn is a small business economy – 90% of employers have less than 20 people on the payroll. With healthcare premiums rising and the number of uninsured people growing, setting up a dangerous situation when these small businesses lose their employees to illness, and employees unable to get medical care they need to continue working.

Based on data from the New York City Mayor’s Office of Health Insurance Access, the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Commonwealth Fund, estimated are that there are more than 137,000 small business employees and their dependents in Brooklyn without health insurance. Citywide, the number is over 360,000.

"The reason Brooklyn HealthWorks is so important is that it is catching those who fall through the cracks of Healthy New York and Medicaid and offering them health insurance,” said Assemblyman Lentol, whose 50th district covers the Fort Greene, Williamsburg and Greenpoint neighborhoods. “It is a true safety net for the hardworking individuals and their children that government traditionally forgets.”

Background
In 1999, the Brooklyn Alliance, the not-for-profit arm of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, the Office of the Brooklyn Borough President, GHI and a consortium of northern Brooklyn health care and social service providers began an initiative to develop an affordable health insurance product for low wage employees of small businesses located in northern Brooklyn.

Their efforts were realized in the spring of 2004, when Brooklyn HealthWorks opened enrollment to employers in northern Brooklyn.

Later that year, it was opened to sole proprietors and the following year was expanded to the entire borough of Brooklyn. Other improvements included the introduction of Brooklyn HealthWorks Total and Max, which offered two different levels of coverage.

However, by the end of February 2006, both premium subsidy and operating funds were exhausted and new enrollment was suspended in March that year. The efforts shifted to fundraising, and thanks to the permanent state funding, enrollment has been able to reopen.

“The Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce has a done a fantastic job with this program and I think it can act as a real model for other areas to follow," said Assemblyman Lentol.

For more information about Brooklyn HealthWorks, contact Theresa Reyes at 718-875-1000 ext. 141, or at treyes@brooklynchamber.com.