Photograph by Daniel Acker/Bloomberg
An Affordable Care Act navigator in Princeton, Ill., on Dec. 18
The
Small Business Health Option Plan, the Obamacare program intended to
help insure employees of businesses with fewer than 50 workers, is off
to a rough start. Technical problems caused the federal government,
which is operating SHOPs in 36 states, to delay launching online
marketplaces by a year, until this November. State-run SHOPs that managed to launch online have seen low enrollment.
Alex Wayne writes for Bloomberg News today about just how slow the uptake has been. Kentucky, which garnered praise
for the launch of its state exchange amid healthcare.gov’s rocky
rollout, had enrolled just 14 companies in SHOP plans. Colorado had
enrolled 101 companies, and Connecticut 106. In New York, about 5,000
employees at companies with fewer than 50 workers had signed up for
Obamacare’s small business plans. It’s hard to guess total SHOP
enrollment, but it almost certainly pales compared with the 2.2 million
people the government says obtained private insurance through individual
exchanges through Dec. 28.The problem with SHOPs is bigger than building working online marketplaces. Many small business owners renewed existing, pre-Obamacare plans at the end of last year, hoping to avoid higher premiums as new portions of the reform law took effect. With small business owners staying away from SHOPs, there may not be enough demand to attract insurers. And small business owners who have looked at SHOPs don’t always like what they find, writes Wayne:
