The South Carolina Health Cooperative (SCHC) today announced it is the state’s first licensed health insurance cooperative. The private nonprofit organization will begin accepting applications for membership immediately in order to offer health insurance rate relief and a longterm health insurance solution for many South Carolina small businesses.
The first of its kind in South Carolina and one of only a few in the nation, the Cooperative successfully completed a year‐long licensing process with the South Carolina Department of Insurance to create the organization that will be wholly owned and operated by its small business members.
The SCHC was created as a result of legislation passed by the South Carolina General Assembly in 2008. Senator David Thomas of Greenville, chairman of the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee, praised the Cooperative. “The ability for small business to group together to be able to purchase insurance at lower prices is a real breakthrough in cost containment. I'm hopeful South Carolina small business owners will see this as a very positive step toward helping their employees as well as their bottom lines,” Thomas said.
Insurance rates are primarily driven by the number of people insured in a group, making insurance for small businesses more costly than for their larger counterparts. Through membership in the Cooperative, qualifying businesses will form one large insurance pool that benefits from the strength‐in‐numbers lower, more stable premium rates previously available only to large corporations.
“We are thrilled to offer this option to South Carolina’s small businesses,” said Cooper Littlejohn, SCHC president and CEO. “As I travel across the state meeting business owners and learning about the challenges they face dealing with health insurance, it is clear that the co‐op structure will be of great value to business owners and their employees by cutting insurance costs and creating long‐term rate stability. Our organization will help small businesses lower insurance costs and make those costs more predictable, thus giving them more money to reinvest in growing their businesses.”
The co‐op will also offer health education programs and incentives to its members, he said.
Littlejohn, 20, is one of the youngest healthcare executives in the United States. He took on the challenge of creating a cooperative to serve small businesses in the summer of 2009, while working as a summer intern for the Seneca, SC‐based Nuttall Insurance Agency.
“My mentors felt the cooperative structure would be of great value to small business clients, but they understandably could not take time from their existing clients to pursue the application process. The combination of their experience and knowledge of the insurance industry and my ability to do the legwork has allowed us to create a unique private-sector solution to health insurance issues that truly is a new approach to healthcare,” Littlejohn said.
More information is available at schealthco-op.com or 1‐888‐721‐2667.