Faced with rising premiums in the group health insurance market, the Park Slope Food Coop opted five years ago to create a custom plan for its 74 full-time employees and their family members and pay for the costs directly. “I’m convinced we would have had to raise prices if we weren’t self-insured,” said Joseph Holtz, general manager, who estimates self-insurance saves the co-op $300,000 to $500,000 a year. The co-op is one of several hundred New York employers that will be forced to stop self-insuring next year, thanks to a change in the state’s definition of a small business. READ MORE