As people look to secure healthcare coverage for next year, this Austin startup has found a way to make healthcare coverage affordable for small businesses.
AUSTIN, Texas — Even during the pandemic, Austin continues to grow as a hub for technology firms and startup businesses.
Small businesses though have a tough time providing health insurance for their employees. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, less than one-third of U.S. businesses with fewer than 50 employees offer health insurance to their employees. A new Austin startup is changing that.
When you’re building a company from scratch, there’s a lot to consider.
Alex Blum is the founder of Applied Bioplastics, an Austin startup that is changing how plastics are manufactured using plant-based materials.
“The product itself reduces the CO2 emitted when manufacturing plastic items by 43%,” Blum told KVUE. “And if we’re able to use recycled feedstock, that number jumps to 97%. It looks just like this here.”
Blum and his partner started adding employees they knew needed healthcare.
“We started researching our options and there’s the usual big guys out there and they’re exorbitantly expensive,” said Blum. “There’s the Affordable Care Act, which isn’t as affordable as I think we would all like it to be. And then there was Decent and it was so weird seeing a company that offered the kind of coverage for the price that they did.”
Blum found another Austin startup called Decent. It offers quality healthcare at affordable prices. Instead of paying thousands every month, Blum now pays hundreds.
“A self-employed person who makes $50,000 a year or more is not going to qualify for a dollar of government subsidies. So, we’re probably going to be the most affordable option for that person offered by a wide margin,” said Decent founder Nick Soman.
Soman started Decent seeing the need for smaller companies like his own to offer health insurance for their employees.
Here’s how it works: small companies that share an industry are grouped together, giving them the scale to negotiate better rates and build custom health insurance plans.