SmallBusinessNewz

eHealth, Inc. and the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) announced the launch of eHealth's BusinessHSA, an online health insurance platform for small businesses.

Designed mainly for small businesses that cannot afford group health insurance, BusinessHSA is an online platform that allows employers to co-fund and administer their contributions to employee individual health savings accounts (HSA).

The BusinessHSA platform gives employers the ability to contribute to employee HSAs at defined levels and offers online payroll administration to manage both employer and employee HSA contributions over time. The platform allows employees to open an HSA and research and apply for an HSA eligible health insurance plan. Employees will be able to manage their HSA bank accounts online and use an eHealth-branded debit card.

Out of the estimated 47 million Americans without health insurance, almost 28 million are workers, the majority either employed by small businesses or self-employed.

"Since 1986, the National Federation of Independent Business' members have said that healthcare costs are their number one concern," said Todd Stottlemyer, president and CEO of NFIB.

"BusinessHSA is one type of innovation that can help small businesses deal with the burden of increasing healthcare costs and stay competitive in hiring and retaining valued employees."