Perdue proposes private health insurance to small business employees

Sonny Perdue announced on Tuesday the new Health Insurance Partnership for Georgia which is a health care plan for workers in Georgia who are uninsured. Under the new proposal by Perdue this means they will be able to join the program voluntarily and offer private health insurance to employees.

The way this will work is that the cost of the insurance plan will be split between the employer, employee and a mixture of state and federal funds. Perdue said that he wants to spend up to a large $20 million to have the program roll out by the 1st July 2008 and a $20 million state investment when combined with federal funds and contributions from employee and employer premiums, this in return will yield more than $182 million in insurance coverage for over 30,000 Georgians.

So who are eligible for the plan? Well this will include sole proprietors or those who mainly work for small businesses of which contains 50 employees or less and eligible employees must work less than 20 hours a week plus earn less than 300% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) which is $62,000 a year for a family of 4 and $30,600 a year for one single adult. Perdue said that any employees who earn more than the income cap are also still eligible for coverage with premiums split between the employee and employer.

Is Perdue proposal of private health insurance to small business employees a good idea or a bad one?