SB 277 - This act allows small employers to join the Missouri Consolidated Health Care Plan. For purposes of the act, the term "employer" means an employer who employed an average of at least one but not more than fifty persons during the preceding calendar year and who employs at least one person on the first day of the plan year. A small employer includes a sole proprietor and a partner of a partnership. The state health care plan shall maintain a separate benefit trust fund account for premium payments and other income received from small employers. This act is identical to HB 1412 (1998). STEPHEN WITTE