By ANN HINCH
Assistant Editor

ATLANTA, Ind. — A plan from one Indiana seed company to provide its customers and dealers access to group health insurance is on hold – for now, at least.

Last August, Beck’s Hybrids of Atlanta put out the news it was working with a nearby insurance agency to try to set up a group health care plan for Beck’s dealers and customers who plant their fields 100 percent with Beck’s seeds. Signups of interest were due by mid-September 2007 and the proposal was open to eligible customers in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Illinois and Kentucky.

According to Bruce Vester, special projects manger for Beck’s, more than 200 people expressed interest at first. By September, 59 had applied for the insurance. When it came time to collect payment, only 13 people were willing to write checks; Vester said the insurers could not write a group plan for so few, and so the proposal fell through.

To be fair, Aaron Mercer of Patriot Insurance in Kokomo, Ind. – the agency helping Beck’s – had explained last year that numbers was key to offering coverage. “If we have 20, it probably won’t work,” he said in August. “But if we have a few hundred, that would be better.”

“We’re still tossing new ideas around,” Vester said, adding that Beck’s may put forth another offer in the near future. “Maybe (it will be) a little more attractive to form a group later on. Forming a group is hard to do.

“I think our timing last year was off,” he said, explaining that farmers were busy harvesting last fall and perhaps didn’t have time to find out more.