Bredesen Wants Nod From Small Business Owners for ‘Cover Tennessee’

Governor Phil Bredesen says ‘Cover Tennessee’ will fail without the participation of the state’s small businesses.

Monday, the Governor outlined his plan to help small businesses cope with rising insurance costs by reaching out to companies with less than 25 employees. Under the proposal, the employer, the employee and the state would each contribute 50-dollars a month toward a health insurance policy for the employee.

Speaking (today/yesterday) to members of the National Federation of Independent Business, Bredesen encouraged small business owners to take the lead in using the health program.

“I do believe that business does have an obligation certainly first of all I’m a capitalist and they’ve got an obligation to make money and provide jobs. I also think businesses have an obligation at all levels to step out and do things to improve the community and improve the common welfare. We really do depend on business for things like the provision of healthcare.”

Small businessman Bub Duthie is interested in seeing more details. He says his employees likely make more than the Governor’s targeted income range, but with insurance costs constantly rising, he hopes the Governor’s proposal will help businesses like his too.

“We pay 60-percent of the cost to the employee and when this new plan came out it looked like we could get insurance now for 50-dollars a month instead of the 120-dollars its costing us. That would save us a lot of money and the other thing is we could then afford to cover the employee’s family. Right now we’re only paying for the employee.”

The Governor hopes to open the plan to a wider range of workers in the future but he has learned from TennCare’s woes to start out conservatively. Bredesen wants at least 100-thousand policy-holders within three years of establishing the new health coverage. He adds that if small businesses don’t partner with the state to offer partial payment to cover their employees, ‘Cover Tennessee’ will not last.

Bredesen says his proposal isn’t perfect, but he has asked State Legislators not to mess with it too much. He says it’s a start and adds that if the cost rises above the proposed 150-dollars a month, the program will not succeed. In that case Bredesen says he would consider establishing the program through an executive order.

Jacqueline Fellows contributed to this report.