Stay Informed

Rising health care costs are impacting the financial stability of family farms and rural communities. That’s why finding ways to make health care more affordable for members is Farm Bureau’s top priority during the 2020 General Assembly.

“INFB has a 100-year history of creating solutions for our members,” said INFB President Randy Kron. “In the 1920s, we created the marketing cooperatives. In the 1930s, we created our mutual insurance company to provide property and casualty benefits that were not available to farmers at the time.

“Our members have asked for help, and we are responding,” Kron added.

“We’re uniquely positioned to offer this product,” added Mark Thornburg, director of INFB’s legal team and coordinator of the organization’s research into the health benefit issue. “We have a history of serving members, and we have infrastructure and members in every county.”

But responding hasn’t been easy, Kron noted. During a year of extensive research, INFB looked at a variety of health benefit plans and talked with other state Farm Bureaus who are trying to address the same problem.  Kron also noted that although INFB does not own a health insurance company, it does have Farm Bureau partners and resources in other states that have the experience and willingness to join INFB in addressing this need. 

“Through our research, we’ve found there isn’t a single option that will allow us to offer an affordable plan for the sole proprietor,” Kron said. “Our solution will help many of our members but will not address every individual health care need.”

The research included a survey of members. Nearly 2,000 responded, and through those responses, INFB discovered that the greatest need is for health benefits that would cover sole proprietorships and working owners with fewer than two employees. The plan would be available to individuals, not just those farms or businesses with employees, which is a requirement of other association plans.  

“To offer an innovative product that will help our family farms and other Farm Bureau members around the state requires a tweak to state statute,” Kron said.

The majority of survey respondents said affordable health care was important to the profitability of their operations. Of those members who are not on Medicare, Medicaid or Tri-Care, nearly 80% identified the cost of health care as extremely important or very important to the survival of their businesses.

INFB is pursuing a solution that allows for a competitive and innovative option for members who do not qualify for Affordable Care Act subsidies and have no other option for affordable health care.  Kansas, Tennessee and Iowa Farm Bureaus have pursued a similar approach.

A key component in INFB’s research has been simply talking to members.

“Almost every time I go to a meeting, somebody brings up the cost of health care benefits,” Kron said. “I’ve been asked multiple times, ‘Can’t Farm Bureau do something to help us with this?’”

“The survey was important, but I think it was the individual conversations that had the bigger impact for me,” said Kevin Underwood, District 3 director. “The survey confirmed what I was hearing. It really highlighted what I had been told, which is that individual proprietorships have a very difficult time finding solutions.”

Underwood’s wife, Sherry, also owns her own business – a hair salon – so the problem of finding insurance for sole proprietorships is something the Underwoods have considered more than once, he said. As a member of the Tippecanoe County Council, Underwood gets health insurance benefits through the county plan.

“But if there were to come a time where I was no longer on the council, then obviously that would become a very personal issue for us as a family,” Underwood said.

“I've had a number of our members say how it's impacted their bottom line,” Kron said. “One gentleman told me that his health insurance premiums are more than his annual profit. I've had multiple people tell me that they've actually dropped coverage because they just can't afford it.

“Even if you will not personally benefit from this new option, please give your support to a solution that is exclusively aimed at helping Farm Bureau members, your family, friends, neighbors, small-business owners or entrepreneurs in our rural communities,” he added.