Brooklyn's Progress
September 2004

As the nation continues to discuss possible solutions to controlling rising health care costs and access to affordable health insurance, the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce announced that it’s opening up Brooklyn HealthWorks to sole proprietors, making low-cost health insurance available to individual business owners and their families in northern Brooklyn. 

When Brooklyn HealthWorks launched in April it was initially available to eligible small businesses with 2 to 50 employees.  Now that the product has been firmly established in the small business marketplace, the Chamber can offer the plan to eligible sole proprietors in Northern Brooklyn.

“For small business owners in northern Brooklyn, no matter the size of your staff, 1 to 50, Brooklyn HealthWorks has you covered,” said Kenneth Adams, Brooklyn Chamber President.  “Many Brooklyn businesses are successful but can’t afford for themselves, let alone for their employees and families, a basic necessity – health insurance.  Affordable health care is one of the most significant problems that Brooklynites face and we believe that Brooklyn HealthWorks is a viable solution.” 

Recent data released by the Census Bureau shows nearly 45 million people, or 15.6 percent, of the U.S. population lacked health insurance.  Brooklyn accounts for 700,000 of the uninsured.  The majority of Brooklyn's businesses are small businesses and Brooklyn HealthWorks has the potential to significantly reduce the numbers of uninsured in Brooklyn.

Brooklyn HealthWorks is a GHI health insurance plan which includes primary care, specialty care and pharmaceutical coverage.  Services are provided through a specially developed Exclusive Provider Network (EPO) with GHI, including six local hospitals and almost 1,000 local participating doctors, specialists, imaging centers, laboratories and other medical services providers.

Brooklyn HealthWorks monthly insurance costs can run as low as $150 for an individual and $435 for family coverage.  The program can offer such affordable rates because of a collaborative effort between the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, GHI, the State of New York Insurance Department, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Health Resource Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and other community partners.  

Northern Brooklyn communities in the Brooklyn HealthWorks demonstration area include:  Bedford-Stuyvesant, Bushwick, Crown Heights, Fort Greene, East New York, Greenpoint, Ocean Hill/Brownsville, and Williamsburg.  The correlating zip codes are:  11205, 11206, 11207, 11208, 11212, 11213, 11216, 11217, 11221, 11222, 11225, 11233, 11237 and 11238.

To be eligible for Brooklyn HealthWorks sole proprietors must:

• Be located within the northern Brooklyn demonstration area;
• Be employed, or if unemployed must have worked some time during the past 52 weeks;
• Not had comprehensive health insurance for some portion of the past 12 months; and
• Meet Brooklyn HealthWorks income guidelines.

Interested sole proprietors can visit the Brooklyn HealthWorks website at http://www.brooklynhealthworks.com/ for more information on rates, eligibility, benefits, and a list of participating health care providers.  To speak with a Brooklyn HealthWorks representative, contact Michelle Matthews, Brooklyn HealthWorks Marketing & Enrollment Specialist at 718-596-4550 or e-mail her at MMatthews@brooklynchamber.com.