Weiner Offers His Proposal For Cheaper Health Insurance

By ROBIN SHULMAN; Winnie Hu contributed reporting for this article.

Representative Anthony D. Weiner proposed yesterday that the city help small businesses band together to bargain for cheaper health insurance.

The more small businesses that group together and bargain for a health care plan, the cheaper the plan is likely to be, said Mr. Weiner, one of four candidates in the Sept. 13 Democratic mayoral primary.

''The single greatest obstacle to providing health care for many New Yorkers is the fact that if you work in a small business, it's simply impractical -- even if the owner of the business wants to provide health care -- to be able to do it,'' he said. Some 1.8 million New Yorkers are uninsured, and half of those people work full time, Mr. Weiner said during a campaign stop on Ditmars Boulevard in Astoria, Queens. His idea is based on an existing program, Brooklyn Healthworks, that offers insurance to small businesses for $157 a month per employee. But one business owner passing by said it would still be a struggle for the owners of the smallest businesses to join a collective plan.

''When you talk about pooling the resources -- it seems to me that for a small-business owner, the resources aren't really there,'' said Thomas Borrelli, who owns an event management company.

Mr. Weiner told Mr. Borrelli that he was just the kind of business owner his program could help.

Today, Mr. Weiner plans to discuss his proposal to provide health care to uninsured pregnant women, and he has spoken previously on other health-care issues, including the difficulties of enrolling for Medicaid.

On Friday, Fernando Ferrer made his own health care proposal, calling for health insurance for all of the city's children and more of its adults.

Christy Setzer, a Ferrer spokeswoman, said Mr. Weiner's proposal on health insurance for small businesses is just one solution for a larger problem.

Mr. Ferrer campaigned on other issues yesterday and had a schedule filled with events in all the boroughs outside Manhattan.

C. Virginia Fields campaigned at shopping centers in Queens and at picnics in Queens and the Bronx.

During a news conference yesterday to urge the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to delay increases in subway fares, Council Speaker Gifford Miller defended his extensive petition efforts to qualify for the Democratic line as well as for a new ballot line devoted to education.

Mr. Miller said that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg also planned to run on two lines, for the Republican and New York Independence parties. Mr. Miller's campaign has come under criticism for claiming that $1.2 million in expenses, primarily for the petition drive, are exempt from traditional spending limits.

''It is important when you're going to compete with a mayor who's going to be running not just on the Republican line but also on the Fulani line,'' said Mr. Miller, referring to Lenora B. Fulani, a leading member of the Independence Party.

William T. Cunningham, a Bloomberg spokesman, fired back that Mr. Miller had repeatedly used his city government position to further his campaign. ''While he pretends to be a champion of reform, he has done everything possible to enhance his own campaign and spend whatever taxpayer money he can lay his hands on,'' Mr. Cunningham said.

Steve Sigmund, a Miller spokesman, said, ''That's laughable from someone who put their name on the $400 rebate checks to every New York homeowner.'"