Nonprofit health care plan offers hope – The Montana Nonprofit Association

The Montana Nonprofit Association http://www.mtnonprofit.org is to be commended for expanding options for member organizations to offer health insurance to their employees.

The move could perhaps serve as an example other economic sectors could duplicate in an effort to get health care coverage for more Montanans.

The MNA already offers its members four major medical coverage plans for employees through New West Health Services. The group recently negotiated four more plans with lower premiums. The four new plans cover doctor and emergency room visits along with life insurance and some pharmaceutical coverage, though none of the group’s plans includes catastrophic coverage.

But any coverage is a big improvement over no coverage, and nonprofit employees who choose to do so can buy catastrophic coverage separately.

Other trade organizations should look at what the MNA has done and pursue similar measures for small business employers in every economic sector. By banding together and increasing the pool of insurable people, these trade groups could perhaps spread the risk and lower premiums for health care coverage for all their members’ employees.

Some 19 percent of Montanans are without any health insurance at all, up from 18 percent just a couple of years ago — an indication that the situation is getting worse, not better.

And just because your employer provides you with affordable health insurance, don’t think it’s not your problem. Those who have no insurance put off health care until it reaches a critical stage and then get coverage at the most expensive point in the health care system — the emergency room. And when those exorbitant bills go partially or completely unpaid, the rest of us pick up the tab, through higher bills and insurance premiums.

The MNA is doing a tremendous service for its 270 member organization. Perhaps others will take a page out of their book and do the same.

http://bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2005/12/06/opinions/01healthcaredit.txt