WASHINGTON — The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Small Business Administration and the State of Georgia on Sept. 14 jointly recognized CHOICE health insurance arrangements as a successful model for expanding coverage options for small business workers.
CHOICE arrangements are a Trump administration health policy initiative designed to increase health coverage flexibility and affordability for small businesses and their employees, CMS said. Georgia’s participation provides a replicable model the administration is expected to promote to other states.
The three-agency joint recognition is unusual, signaling cross-government coordination on health policy rollout between CMS, which oversees federal health coverage programs, and SBA, which serves as the federal advocate for small businesses.
Small businesses employ approximately half of all private-sector workers in the United States, but their employees are significantly more likely to be uninsured than workers at large firms. The cost and administrative burden of offering health coverage has been a persistent challenge for businesses with fewer than 50 employees, which are not subject to the Affordable Care Act’s employer mandate.
CHOICE arrangements are designed to give small employers additional options for structuring health benefits, though specific program details and enrollment figures were not included in the announcement.
If the model scales nationally, it could alter how tens of millions of Americans employed by small businesses access health coverage. The administration has signaled its intent to use Georgia’s experience as a template for expansion to additional states.