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The Beaumont Enterprise, Texas, Dan Wallach column(Beaumont Enterprise, The (Texas) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Oct. 29--A good deal came to town last week in the form of affordable health insurance for small businesses, and more than a dozen have jumped on it already. Area chambers of commerce brought in an organization called Texas Coalitions to talk about the program made possible in a state law passed in 2005 that would help small companies with a handful of employees find strength in numbers with similar businesses around the state. If the businesses can aggregate, it helps to spread the risks and lower the costs to help make health insurance more affordable for employees. Alton Laird, proprietor of Alton's Automotive Inc. in Beaumont, said his company provides insurance for his seven employees altogether, but the cost is prohibitive and the contribution each employee has to bear is very high. "It's intriguing to me," he said. "We're certainly interested in supplying a good benefit for our employees. I think it's one of the top benefits that needs to be provided to attract and keep quality employees." Texas Coalitions doesn't provide the insurance. Its mission is to find the companies and assign a local insurer to help them find the best rate. In Beaumont, the authorized agent is Lumpkin's Insurance & Associates, which has a link on its Web site, lumpkinsinsurance.com, for the Texas Coalitions information. Tracey Lumpkin, the agency owner, is an independent so she can shop the market for the best coverage, she said. Lumpkin said she had taken a leadership course in Austin where she met Ron Mullen, who visited Beaumont last week as the Texas Coalitions representative. Lumpkin said Mullen had asked her to represent the program in Southeast Texas. So far, Texas Coalitions has signed up 31 companies that are saving a combined $301,000 on their insurance costs. Individual companies are finding that they can save about 30 percent on the insurance costs overall, said one of the associates at the Lumpkin agency. She said if a company has fewer than nine employees, insurance costs often are 20 percent higher. If these small companies can join together, they can qualify for lower costs and increased benefits. Since the announcement of the program, at least 15 companies have asked for information and some were filling out applications through the agency, Lumpkin said. The Greater Beaumont Chamber of Commerce has on its roster a list of 668 local businesses that have fewer than 10 employees, which represents probably half of the chamber's total membership. Betty Maxey, of Maxey Building Products Inc. in Beaumont, also said she was filling out the forms to find out more about the insurance. The company has four employees and does not currently provide its own benefits although some are covered by other policies through spouses who work elsewhere. "I haven't heard what the figures are going to be," she said. "But anytime you band together, you stand a chance of getting a better rate. To me, I think it's a good deal and it's worth looking into." [email protected] (409) 838-2876 Copyright (c) 2006, The Beaumont Enterprise, Texas Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |