Jim Leddy, the president of AARP in Vermont and a former state senator, says a new survey indicates that the number of under-insured people in the state is growing at an alarming rate.

Leddy says it's critical for lawmakers next year to expand the state's health program, known as Catamount Health, to give Vermonters access to comprehensive policies that are reasonably priced.

VPRs Bob Kinzel reports.

(Kinzel) A recent AARP survey of 400 small businesses in Vermont shows that paying for health care insurance has become a major financial burden for many of these companies.

According to the survey, just over 40% of small businesses in the state don't offer their employees any health insurance coverage, and roughly half of the businesses that do have switched to high deductible plans.

Speaking on VPR's Vermont Edition, AARP president Jim Leddy says this trend means that more and more workers face large out of pocket medical expenses:

(Leddy) "The other dynamic that's happening is that not only are there folks who have lost their insurance a growing number have become under insured the type of coverage they had last year or two years ago has changed they're paying more their benefits have been cut and that's also a trend that I think is disturbing."

(Kinzel) Leddy says his organization hopes to mobilize the state's small business community to convince lawmakers next winter to expand Catamount Health Care to allow these businesses to join the program.

Jeanne Keller is a health care consultant who represents a company that provides health care services to small businesses in Vermont.

Keller argues that expanding Catamount isn't going to solve the state's health care crisis.

She says enrolling more people in Catamount will exacerbate the state's health care cost shift because Catamount reimburses health care providers at a lower rate than private insurers and she says these costs are ultimately passed along to consumers with private policies.

Instead, Keller says the state should be looking at ways to contain health care costs:

(Keller)"For me the fundamental issue is the cost of health insurance and the fact that we have uninsured people are symptoms not the problem. They're symptoms of the cost of health care that underlies that Catamount isn't any different from any other health insurance plan except that it pays doctors and hospitals less than regular health insurance plans."

(Kinzel) Keller says the cost of private health insurance premiums could be reduced by as much as 10% if government health care programs reimbursed providers for the true cost of their services.

For VPR News, I'm Bob Kinzel in Montpelier.