A gentleman writing a recent letter to the editor of my local newspaper thought he was making a case for national health insurance, but he actually made a case for insurance reform. He was basically ranting about the fact that small businesses and the self-employed generally do not have access to true group insurance the employees of large corporations do. So far, the insurance lobby has succeeded in putting the brakes on any attempts by legislators to rectify this situation.

However, we dont need another huge government bureaucracy like national health insurance. We just need laws that force insurance companies that sell group health insurance in this country to widen its scope of availability, i.e., make it available to more entities than just large corporations.

Quality group insurance should be made available to groups of small businesses and the self-employed who pool their resources together in insurance cooperatives in much the same way that members of other cooperatives and credit units do today. Any self-employed person or small business employee who wanted to join one of these organizations and purchase group insurance should be allowed to do so without regard to the condition of their or a family members health. Thats the way it works for employees of big businesses.

This requirement shouldnt pose any greater risk for the insurance companies than the current model as the percentage of sickly people in any large group should remain relatively constant, regardless of whether they work for just one company or a thousand.