Current Issues

Chamber And Quinn Partner To Bring Health Insurance To Small Biz

BY PETE DAVIS
pdavis@queenscourier.com

QB/Photo by Christina Santucci

Nearly 1,500 small business employees in Queens could have the opportunity to receive affordable health insurance under a plan that City Council Speaker Christine Quinn is pushing.

Quinn’s plan, which would cover 4,500 small business employees from Manhattan and Queens, is an expansion of the Brooklyn HealthWorks program that the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce began in 2004.

“Small businesses are the backbone of our neighborhood,” Quinn said during a press conference in Jackson Heights on Thursday, February 28. “They are critical employers of the city of New York. They are portals into the middle class for people.”

Under the proposed expansion for Brooklyn HealthWorks, which Quinn said would have a new name, the Queens and Manhattan Chambers of Commerce would do outreach to their small business members to see if they qualified for the affordable insurance.

Meanwhile, the Brooklyn program, which includes a partnership with the Chamber of Commerce, Group Health Incorporated (GHI) and the state Department of Health, has provided affordable insurance to 200 small businesses and nearly 925 individual employees, according to Brooklyn Chamber President Carl Hum.

Small businesses in Manhattan and Queens with 2-50 members and 30 percent of the employees earning under $36,500 could be eligible to enroll in the plan.

Queens Chamber of Commerce President Al Pennisi cited a recent survey of Chamber members that said rising health insurance costs were the biggest concern of businesses.

“The Queens Chamber is very excited for the opportunity to offer an affordable health care program like the one currently offered by our sister Chamber in Brooklyn,” Pennisi said.

Quinn, who originally mentioned a possible expansion of the program during her state of the city address last month, said she would push for the $4.9 million to fund the plan to be included in this year’s city budget. She said that she and her colleagues realize that these are difficult economic times for the city and it might take creative ways to find the funding in the budget, but she believes it is necessary.

“We are also mindful of the fact that in tough economic times the small businesses will suffer first,” Quinn said. QB/Photo by Christina Santucci Al Pennisi, (at podium) President of the Queens Chamber of Commerce, speaks at a press conference to introduce HealthWorks, a program that offers affordable health insurance to small businesses.