Anchorage Daily News

Julie Burdette works at a place she loves, watching over kids for Camp Fire USA, but she does it without a basic benefit: health insurance.

Her part-time job running the after-school program at Chugach Optional Elementary is rewarding and fun, says Burdette, the site director. In her 19 years with Camp Fire, she's been lucky and hasn't suffered any big health problems but she also doesn't go to the doctor when she should.

"I have bad knees. I probably need glasses," says Burdette, who at age 38 is beginning to think more about this sort of thing. "What if something were to happen? Like you find a lump or you are in an accident."

A new health insurance program for Alaskans like Burdette could help.

The Foraker Group, which supports nonprofits in Alaska, announced Thursday that it is offering a health insurance option to employees of private, nonprofit agencies like Camp Fire, arts groups, even health organizations. The Anchorage-based Rasmuson Foundation is kicking in more than $2 million to get it started.

The health insurance will be through Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska.

"Their research indicates this is probably the first of its kind in the nation," said Dennis McMillian, Foraker Group president.

While organizers put this together without government money, they would love to see the state expand the idea to other uninsured Alaskans. The deductibles are high, but that means premiums will be at least 20 percent to 25 percent lower than they would be otherwise.

According to U.S. Census surveys, 23 percent of Alaska adults age 19-64 are uninsured, which is higher than the national average of 20 percent.

Nonprofits employ about 30,000 Alaskans, but that includes those who work for big health organizations such as Providence Alaska Medical Center and the Yukon Kuskokwim Health Corp., McMillian said.

TWO INSURANCE OPTIONS

The new health insurance program will help a range of nonprofits recruit and keep quality employees, said Diane Kaplan, Rasmuson Foundation president.

The program also is designed to improve employee health, McMillian said. Employees will be encouraged to fill out an on-line survey about their health. A health coach -- likely a nurse -- may follow up with advice to help employees get control of problems like high cholesterol levels. That ultimately could help keep costs down, he said.

The program includes two options for health insurance:

• A $1,500-deductible plan with a health savings account. Employees can stash money tax free in the accounts for health expenses. Employers must pay $750 a year into the health savings account.

• A $2,500-deductible plan intended to cover catastrophic health care costs. It also includes discounts for prescription drugs. But employees are on their own for that deductible.

Employers must cover at least 75 percent of the insurance-premium cost for either plan; if they offer family coverage, they must cover at least 50 percent of those premiums.

Both plans include preventive care, including coverage for an annual checkup. Both also will offer dental and vision insurance. After the deductible, either plan will generally cover 80 percent of the health care bill.

AFFORDING INSURANCE

"Having something like this is just phenomenal," said Charlotte Fox, executive director of Alaska State Council on the Arts, a state umbrella agency for arts organizations, many of which are small and cannot afford traditional health insurance. "The field has been waiting for it for a really, really long time."

Barbara Dubovich, chief executive of Camp Fire USA Alaska Council, said that her agency already offers health insurance to about 17 percent of its 200 or so employees, but the plan doesn't cover part-timers -- the employees providing direct care to children.

The health savings accounts may be unfamiliar to some employees. Dubovich said there's some anxiety at Camp Fire among full-timers, who now have more traditional health insurance. But she's convinced the new approach is a benefit to nonprofits.

"I've lost a lot of staff that have gone on to other jobs that provide insurance," Burdette said.

Employees who put money in health savings accounts, typically through payroll deductions, don't have to "use it or lose it," McMillian said. Rather, savings accumulate year after year if not spent, and the money belongs to the individual, not the agency, he said. They operate under different rules than flexible spending accounts, which don't roll over.

The key to the program is getting lots of employees to sign up, because that helps spread the risk Premera faces and stabilize the cost of premiums, McMillian said. At Camp Fire, premiums rose 30 percent in one year after high claims.

Initially, Premera will decide premium rates separately for each nonprofit agency.

But in a year, provided 1,500 employees have signed up, the nonprofit groups will be considered jointly as an association, eligible for a group rate that will be more stable over time, McMillian said.

To encourage enrollment, the first 2,000 employees who sign up for the $1,500 deductible plan will get a bonus of $500 for their health savings account, spread over two years and paid for by the Rasmuson Foundation.

Find Lisa Demer online at adn.com/contact/ldemer or call 257-4390.

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