Lawmakers Rally Behind Small-Business Health Coverage Proposal

A health care advocacy group with a record of success in Annapolis has a new “ask” for 2022: They want the state to set aside $48 million for each of the next five years to make health insurance more affordable for small businesses.

Senate Bill 632 and House Bill 709 would create the Small Business and Nonprofit Health Insurance Subsidies Program.

Most of the requested funds — $45 million per year — would come from pandemic aid the state has received from the federal government.

If the measures passes, companies and non-profits with fewer than 25 employees would become eligible for two years of state subsidies to purchase health insurance for their workers.

“Employers are finding it difficult to hire workers and workers are sometimes wary of going back to jobs because of the ongoing pandemic,” said Senate sponsor Katie Fry Hester (D-Howard). “Ensuring that every single business can offer health insurance is more important than ever.”

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 37% of Maryland businesses with fewer than 50 employees offer health coverage compared with 95% of larger companies.

House sponsor Robbyn Lewis (D-Baltimore) noted that Maryland has more Black- and female-owned businesses, per capita, than any other state. She said the legislation would help close the “profound disparities in health outcomes for people of color.”

The measures are top priorities for the Maryland Health Care for All Coalition, which in past years has prodded the General Assembly to stabilize the state’s insurance market, create a prescription drug cost containment commission and add a health coverage eligibility box on state income tax forms.

The bill is also supported by the state’s “Big 7” county executives, the mayor of Baltimore and the state NAACP.

The proposal is modeled after a smaller 2007 program that was phased out following passage of the federal Affordable Care Act.

Rick Weldon, a former state delegate and head of the Maryland Association of Local Chamber of Commerce Executives, said the proposal would help offset the increasing costs employers are facing. “This bill builds employer loyalty,” he said. “It adds to the insured population in our state.”

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