Many people who run small businesses want to buy health insurance for themselves and/or offer it to employees, but struggle to find affordable coverage. Here are some helpful tips:

Do you run a small business or are you self-employed?

• You may qualify to buy small group health insurance.
• You or your employees won’t have to answer questions about health status.
• If you're self-employed, you'll need to prove you qualify.
• Most insurance companies that sell individual health plans also sell small group plans.

Small business health care tax credit

As part of federal health care reform, some small businesses could qualify to receive the following tax credits (www.irs.gov) for the cost of health insurance:

Many small-business trade associations, such as the National Federation of Independent Business (www.nfib.com) and the Small Business Majority (www.smallbusinessmajority.org), offer online calculators that help you find out if your business qualifies for a tax credit.

For more information on the small business health care tax credit (www.irs.gov), contact the Internal Revenue Service (www.irs.gov).

Small business and health care reform

Starting Oct. 1, you'll have the option to either buy health insurance for your employees through Washington's Healthplanfinder (wahbexchange.org) or directly from an insurance company.

More information about the Healthplanfinder will be available this fall. Depending on when you buy your plan, coverage could start as soon as Jan. 1, 2014.

Updated 04/05/2013