For the nearly 780 small Montana businesses that get state subsidies to help buy health insurance for their employees, there's a catch if they choose a new, cheaper plan next year: They get a lower level of subsidy.

And for a Whitefish T-shirt shop currently on the state-endorsed health plan, this little-known wrinkle in the Insure Montana program could mean the difference between affordable insurance and no insurance.

"I was going around telling everyone what a great thing this Insure Montana was," said Bridget O'Leary, manager of the Northwind Shirt Co. in Whitefish. "And now I (could) be uninsured again.

"Why wouldn't they do (the full subsidy) for any policy that you found?"

The predicament facing O'Leary and her three co-workers so far is affecting only a handful of businesses on the Insure Montana program.

Yet more could be affected if they choose to shop around for a new health insurance policy that is less expensive than state-endorsed plans offered by Montana Blue Cross/Blue Shield.

Right now, all 777 businesses getting health-insurance subsidies through Insure Montana are buying the state "pool" plans. The subsidy pays half of the employer's cost of the policy and up to 90 percent of the employees' cost.

But this fall, Blue Cross raised the rates on those plans by an average of 13 percent.

O'Leary said she also turned 55, raising her rates further. She said if the business stayed with the Blue Cross plan, her share of the premium to cover herself and her husband and son would increase from $67 per month to $294 per month.

The employer share also would increase from $100 per month per employee to $186, and the owner has said it's unaffordable, O'Leary said.

The cost prompted the company to look at other plans that would qualify for the subsidy, outside the state pool. It is considering plans offered by the Montana Retail Association.

Yet if the plan chosen by Northwind Shirt is determined by the state to have lesser benefits than the Blue Cross standard plan, the company and its employees will get a lower subsidy.

Just how much lower isn't yet known. The company has submitted the bids for the alternative health plans to the state auditor's office, which is developing a matrix of comparisons and consequent subsidy levels, said Jan Van Riper, deputy state insurance commissioner.

The auditor's office will compare the plans based on things like deductible level and coverage of dental care and preventative care, she said. Only a few businesses have asked for the comparisons so far, Van Riper said.

Gail Briese-Zimmer, a state health official who chairs the Insure Montana board of directors, said the board decided at the beginning of the program in 2005 that the subsidy should be for health plans offering "comprehensive coverage."

That's why it decided to offer lesser subsidies for policies with lesser benefits, so the money wouldn't go just to plans with minimal coverage, she said.

"Our concern was that we wanted to get decent coverage for people who had never had insurance, so they could get (care) for things they had been putting off for a period of time, because of lack of money or lack of insurance," Briese-Zimmer said.

Yet Daren Engellant, a Kalispell insurance agent pitching the less-expensive policies to Northwind, said the state shouldn't penalize businesses on the Insure Montana program who have trouble affording the more comprehensive plan.

"Why is (the state) judging plans?" he asked. "Let the employees, the businesses, decide what plan they want. They are usually much better judges."

Briese-Zimmer said the Insure Montana board plans to survey businesses and their workers early next year, to see what they think of the overall plans, options and subsidies.

"We recognize that we don't have the complete picture yet," she said of the two-year-old program.

For Northwind Shirt, its employees are waiting to see if they can have an affordable health plan that is still eligible for a good level of subsidy.

"We're hoping that we find something that could work for us," O'Leary said.