Health-Share update

Here's the latest on a program organized by Butler County Commissioner, Greg Jolivette. Just another example of how the private sector can provide solutions without creating another bureaucratic nightmare or wasteful government program!

from the Journal News

Voinovich touts Butler County health care initiative
Senator learns about HealthShare from those who created it.

HAMILTON — U.S. Sen. George Voinovich said a new Butler County program that offers low-cost health insurance to the working poor is proof better ideas come from communities, not Capitol Hill.

The Cleveland Republican met with Butler County leaders and health-learn about HealthShare, a local program championed by Butler County Commissioner Gregory Jolivette.

The local health initiative is a cornerstone, Voinovich said, of the Health Partnership Act he's sponsoring. The legislation would offer grants to states and regions to test pilot programs that Congress would evaluate in five years.

"You know better than we do in Washington about how you could better deliver services," Voinovich said.

Health-care providers in attendance Monday voiced support for HealthShare.
"We see this as one piece of a solution," said Lynn Oswald, director of the Fort Hamilton Hospital. "We would get these patients anyway, so getting something for providing (them) care would be helpful."

Using no public funding, the program helps businesses offer their employees health plans that cost as low as $76 a month if they earn up to 300 percent of federal poverty guidelines — roughly $41,070 for a family of two — or involuntarily lose coverage.

But the biggest problem is getting people to participate, according to program administrator Karen Mueller.

Since the program launched in September, she said only 70 of the roughly 40,000 Butler County residents without insurance have signed up.

Although Mueller expects that number to double or triple in the next two months, she said many eligible companies and residents don't know about the program.

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