Montana Gov. Schweitzer and State Auditor Morrison Announce 250 Additional Montana Small Businesses Could Receive Health Insurance

More Slots Available in Insure Montana

Governor Brian Schweitzer and Montana
State Auditor John Morrison announced today that an additional 250
Montana small businesses could receive assistance with their health
insurance through Insure Montana — the small business health insurance
program designed to begin addressing the problem of the uninsured in
Montana and launched in January of this year.

ìFor thousands of working Montanans, affordable health care has been
out of reach for far too long,î said Schweitzer.† ìIt’s a crisis seen
across the country ñ especially in rural states.† Here in Montana, this
new plan is providing less expensive health insurance to thousands of
Montana families. Over 7,500 Montanans will be able to afford health
insurance because of it.î

A rule change recently adopted by the Insure Montana board of directors
has resulted in the additional openings in the program.† Businesses
with between two to nine employees are now eligible.† The rule
previously only allowed businesses with between two to five employees
to be enrolled in the Insure Montana program.

ìWe are pleased to announce that about 1,500 more Montanans can take
advantage of this innovative, public-private health insurance program
known as Insure Montana,î said Morrison.† ìBy allowing people to buy
into health coverage at a level they can afford, weíre making sure more
Montanans receive the coverage they deserve.† I urge folks to help us
spread the word across the state about this opportunity.î

Currently, more than 4,650 Montanans are benefiting from Insure
Montana.† Funded through a $1-a-pack cigarette tax passed by voters in
the fall of 2004 and authorized by the 2005 Legislature, the measure
was jointly requested by Governor Schweitzer and Auditor Morrison.† The
program was recently recognized by the National Association of
Insurance Commissioners as one of three innovative programs undertaken
by states to begin addressing the crisis of the uninsured.

Administered by the State Auditorís Office, Insure Montana offers two
comprehensive health plans and provides incentive and assistance
payments for both the employer and employees.† It also reduces the cost
of insurance by joining together businesses to form a purchasing pool.
In addition, Insure Montana provides tax credits to small businesses
that are currently providing group health insurance to their
employees.† Additional funding in the second year of the biennium has
resulted in openings on both the purchasing pool side and the tax
credit side.

Based on recent statistics, 53% of Montana’s uninsured population works
full time for small businesses and 80% of small firms not currently
offering insurance would do so if they could afford the premiums. This
funding cycle, it is estimated that the program will cover at least
4,000 Montanans on the purchasing pool side and 3,500 on the tax credit
side.

For more information and eligibility guidelines, log onto the Insure
Montana website at: [ file://www.insuremontana.org
]www.insuremontana.org.†

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Media Contacts:

Sarah J. Elliott††††††† ††††††† ††††††† ††††††† ††††††† †††††††
Communications Director ††††††† ††††††† ††††††† †††††††
Governor Brian Schweitzer
406-444-9725
[email protected]

Stacia Dahl
Communications Director
Montana State Auditorís Office
406-444-3152
[email protected]