Affordable Healthcare Initiative For Small Businesses In Oklahoma

The State Chamber of Oklahoma has launched a new initiative to assist small business owners. ChamberCare is now available to eligible businesses, providing affordable health care for employees.

ChamberCare is designed for small employers with a minimum of two employees enrolled in their medical plan and no more than 50 total employees. This self-funded health care option allows participating businesses to contribute to a collective fund used to cover basic health care claims. The Del City Chamber of Commerce is among several chambers ready to offer this benefit to its members.

“Being in a small town, Del City is about seven and a half square miles, and most of our businesses are small businesses,” said Joshua Shultz with the Del City Chamber of Commerce. “The competitiveness between a small business and maybe a medium-sized or larger business is their ability to provide services and to offer a good package to their employees.”

The State Chamber believes the ChamberCare initiative will empower small business owners to better care for their employees.

“It's a great way for companies with two to 50 employees to get insurance at a very reasonable cost, ensuring their employees are covered while also saving money to reinvest in their company and potentially hire more employees,” said Brent Skarky with the State Chamber.

“If you’re a small-business owner, the first person you’ve got to take care of is your employees before you take care of yourself,” Shultz added.

Skarky noted that the initiative will be administered by Allied and will utilize the Aetna Signature Administrators network.

“It works in a way where all the companies within this plan put their own money into a fund and then pay their own claims,” Skarky said. “That way, they function kind of like a big company that has its own insurance and underwrites its own insurance.”

He highlighted potential savings of up to 20% for participating businesses.

“You do that over 10 employees, and you’re talking about a whole lot of money,” Skarky said.

This new health care option not only benefits employers but also contributes to community growth.

“Just having that extra little bit of incentive for someone to come work at your business is going to help grow not only our city but cities around Oklahoma,” Shultz said.

To learn more about the plan and see which businesses qualify, CLICK HERE.