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ACA Health Insurance Offerings Expand In The Triad

KERI BROWN/WFDD

Small businesses in the Triad may benefit from expanded Affordable Care Act insurance offerings in 2020.  

The new health insurance options will be offered by Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina.

According to the Winston-Salem Journal, the groups say the ACA individual health insurance product, called Blue Local, could reduce rates by up to 40 percent.

Another package targeting small businesses has a goal of reducing ACA rates by up to 15 percent.

It's estimated the expanded coverage agreement could reduce health care costs by nearly $2 million in eight Triad counties.

A Blue Cross NC spokesperson says the new packages are in part a reaction to small business owners who say they are struggling to offer employees affordable coverage.

Enrollment for Blue Local began this month and will end mid-December.  

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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