Senate Bill 1011 would allow eligible Michigan small businesses and self-employed individuals to join together through a trusted statewide association to purchase state-regulated health coverage as a larger group.
Michigan small businesses have reached a tipping point. The rising cost of employee health coverage is limiting business growth, and employers continue to face substantial increases with no relief in sight.
Many small groups are absorbing double-digit premium increases year after year. For a business covering 25 employees, a $2,000 increase per employee adds $50,000 in annual costs. That is money the business cannot use to:
Small businesses and sole proprietors solve tough problems every day. But when it comes to health coverage, their options are limited. Hospital, pharmaceutical, and other health care costs continue to rise, while small employers have fewer tools than large employers to manage those increases. SB 1011 would give them another option.
The bill has unanimously passed the Senate with a vote of 35 to 0. The bill now awaits further consideration in the House.
To help you better understand how an association health plan will work, we have answered the most frequently asked questions.
Don’t see an answer to your question? Email us at sbam@sbam.org.
Senate Bill 1011 allows Michigan-based small businesses (and even sole proprietors) to band together, across industries, through a trusted association and combine their employees into a single pool, structured as an association health plan. By allowing cross-industry pools to form based on geographic commonality, the bill gives small employers the same purchasing power and benefit design leverage that large companies already enjoy.
SBAM’s Chief Revenue Officer, Michelle Beebe, testified alongside Gregory Brogan, Managing Partner of Brogan, before the Senate Health Policy Committee in support of Senate Bill 1011. During the testimony, they highlighted the growing burden of rising health insurance costs on small businesses and discussed how the legislation would allow small employers to band together to form cross-sector association health plans – offering a more sustainable path forward.