November 2 , 2001 - SRS receives Robert Wood Johnson planning grant to help small businesses provide affordable health insurance

The Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services (SRS) has been awarded a grant of almost $150,000 by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to support planning for the Kansas Business Health Partnership, an organization that will help small businesses provide affordable health insurance to their employees.

Last year, the Kansas Legislature passed, and Governor Bill Graves signed, the Kansas Business Health Partnership Act. Under the legislation, the cabinet-level Health Policy Committee, appointed by the Governor, is charged with selecting a private, non-profit organization to serve as the Health Partnership.

The goal of this initiative is to reach more than 30 percent of uninsured workers who are employed by small Kansas businesses that offer no health coverage. Over 250,000 non-elderly Kansans are without health insurance at some point during the year, many of whom either work for, or are the dependent of someone who works for, a small firm.

The entity chosen to be the Health Partnership, through a request for proposal process, will operate a purchasing pool that will provide a choice of health plans to small-business employees. The Health Partnership will combine several sources of payment to provide affordable health care coverage for low-and-modest-wage small firm workers and their families. The payment sources include state and potentially federal tax credits, other direct public subsidies, and traditional employer and employee contributions.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant funding of $149,795 will be used specifically to develop an efficient administrative system to help the Health Partnership become operational. Matched in kind by SRS staff time, the funding will help develop basic purchasing pool operating policies such as benefit design, participation rules, rating structure, and underwriting rules.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is the nation’s largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to health and health care.