Richmond, Virginia (June 20, 2006) - Legislation sponsored by Delegate Jeff Frederick that allows small businesses to collectively purchase health insurance was signed into law today by Governor Tim Kaine.

Frederick's House Bill 478, incorporated into House Bill 761, permits small businesses of less than 50 employees to pool together and negotiate health insurance rates as a single unit. It also requires health insurance companies to view pools as a single unit, offering the pool similar rates to what they would offer other insured businesses of the size of the pool, making, according to Frederick, health care more accessible to more people.

Frederick, who serves as the Vice-Chairman of the Virginia Small Business Commission, said that providing small businesses with greater opportunity to offer health care coverage to their employees will mean more Virginians have access to health care. “This will save taxpayers money, and be a big help to small businesses who are increasingly being burdened by skyrocketing health care costs,” he said.

“This bill allows creative options to help small businesses confront this problem effectively. We believe this overwhelmingly bipartisan legislation is an important step forward in addressing health care concerns in the Commonwealth in a practical way,” Kaine said.

“Small businesses are the Commonwealth’s largest employer and our biggest generator of new jobs. We need to continue to do all we can to empower small business to succeed,” Frederick added.

Frederick is CEO of GXS Strategies, a Virginia-based information and internet technology small business he founded in 1998.