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elliot richardson is the CEO of the small business advocacy Council
SBA at cial
.org is their website no be linked to that over time are not calm as well
today
and and tell it what he welcome back to the program
k-town thank you for having me as always it's great to be on with you thank you
for joining us let me just the
the recap what we talked about the last time
you're on the air and you can correct me if I've if my memory is wrong and
and and then I want to find out what's happened since then my understanding is
you your
basically sort of a small business alternative to the to the Chamber of
Commerce I'm not sure you describe yourself that way but i i think i can.
and up for small businesses in the Chicago area
and you're trying to get enough
businesses together who would be interested in
buying health insurance from a non profit rather than from one is big giant
for-profit corporations
art from a nonprofit that you could put together basically your own health
insurance co op
and if it hit a certain critical mass it could be offered through Obamacare to
small businesses
in the Chicago area do have a right you know what you're pretty close to let me
take you through it ok I've that if that's okay
yeah you know about four years ago so the *** we are completely non-partisan
were laser-focused
and impacting small businesses and that probably differentiates us from some
other business groups
on you know our goal is to bring
is for praying change and to bring
a higher quality up up like Frank the small business owners in our employees
cell
about four years ago I health insurance while before President Obama was
president Obama before Obamacare
health insurance rates for killing small businesses that's all that I can say
it was killing my small business so we came up with this concept the building a
co-op
and we drafted legislation for that and that we were able to get the ability
in Illinois to build a health insurance co op which is an insurance company
essentially a mutual although by the businesses in the entrepreneurs and the
employees
in at the coop and operated by are advocates and I was a tough fight I'll
tell you that I mean
we have to lobby against insurance companies you know the concept of
increase competition does not make them extremely excited especially in Illinois
arm were blue cross blue shield is very strong but we got that done
and then there was funding through the Affordable Care Act
on which allows I capital money to actually build
these cooperatives and right now there is a wonderful co-op in Illinois call
plan to blink and
and the SP stacy is very supportive of it we're trying to get the word out
a and you know how this disruptive I
product really change the nature health insurance in the state of Illinois
that is that is great so this this predated
Obamacare but oh well carriers however the Affordable Care Act is helped along
we're trying to tell its elliot richardson the CEO of the small business
advocacy Council as this
SBAC are Illinois SBAC I L
.org is the website and so
where are you at now and when will companies be able to participate or can
they already or what
it what's going on we land of lincoln program yet they can already and yeah
you know it was great because the state predate Obamacare and we had strong
support from business groups
& trade organizations both you know that were traditionally
identify themselves on the right arm and also on the last because you know health
insurance rates
don't discriminate I they go up what you're a democrat or republican
we've got this thing up in running land a link in a
is up and running the nice thing about where to play ken is it was
it in partnership with the Metropolitan Chicago hospital
I hospital group in our noise so you've got medical providers in small business
owners working together
to bring this product to Illinois and yeah but they're they're writing
insurance policies right now
the *** itself has a private exchange
with some great technology and a defined contribution model
which is really innovative for small business owners and
we're bringing people into the Cooper brokers are bringing people into the
coop and I think it's an incredibly exciting thing
for small businesses here in Illinois while a defined contribution mean
I mean what you people say that I think for a1k as post a defined benefit been a
pension
is it's really it's really interesting so what you can do now through this
private exchange into Land of Lincoln
is if you have ten employees you can give them a certain amount of money
in stabilising we've got a broker that will help you shop
but go on to this private exchange and shop for the product that you walked
the health insurance product the health insurance product that you want n you
know
you may want to go bigger and batter and you might have to put in a little more
money
you could call last grant on you know
are smaller network and what not I and it would be rushing you could use some
that savings to purchase other insurance like
like dat or I care but instead of the employer having to dictate to everybody
right what is that they're gonna get it has competition and allows employees
to pick plans I'll let me focus on things that they want to focus on like
wellness and things of that nature
right and different people at different ages and and different
medical circumstances and stages in their life for gonna
gravitate toward different plans especially brings competition to the
market in your hearing your previous conversation about you know
where corporations and how they circle dominate I
this is critical mass and this is changing things by bringing people
together
and saying we can build something they can compete with these big
folks not and really alter the landscape yeah
in fact the the phrase in the this note you search on
we're looking to disrupt an environment for only a few providers have control
over health insurance and basil like
that's that's a that's pretty FDR as pretty close to
elliot richardson I SBA salebuy I
here totally non-partisan I guess *** as in small business advocacy Council
I L as in Illinois dot or spécial Donald
thank you I heat pump fake you so much