A regional health care group is asking four area counties to financially back the Central Texas Regional Health Coverage Program, a pilot initiative that would provide Central Texas businesses a much-needed health care coverage option.

The health coverage plan, developed locally by the Tex Health Central Texas initiative and a 60-member steering committee, is part of a state-wide effort. The city of Galveston was the first to launch the program in the state.

The project’s committee hopes to begin enrolling Central Texas businesses in the program this spring, but it must first secure funding to get it off the ground.

“The program is designed to fill a gap, not replace, but fill a gap for those businesses that cannot afford traditional insurance,” said Ann Kitchen, executive director of the Integrated Care Collaboration, who is on the program’s regional steering committee.

The health care program is a low-cost, basic coverage plan that is not designed to cover long-term medical needs.

About 41 percent of the region’s business don’t provide health insurance for their workers, and that percentage is higher among small businesses that employ between 2 to 50 employees, according to the Central Texas Regional Health Coverage Program.

The program’s steering committee, which has worked on the project for a little less than a year, is now formally seeking support from Travis, Williamson, Hays and Burnet counties.

The committee is proposing a pilot plan to cover 2,500 uninsured Central Texas workers in three years. That number was scaled back from an initial idea of covering 10,000 uninsured workers.

Kitchen said the committee decided to scale back the plan because of the recession.

“It is simply a prudent approach. In these times, we don’t know what impact the economy will have. It makes sense to start the new program in a conservative way,” she said.

Travis County Healthcare District had said it would consider putting .5 million toward funding the program, depending on whether it could get participation from other counties.

Kitchen said that the program’s committee is asking Travis County Healthcare District to provide 73 percent of the start-up funding. Williamson County is being asked to fund 17 percent; Hays County is being asked for 7 percent; and Burnet County is being asked for 3 percent.

The health care program would require 5,000 in start-up costs for the first year. In the second year, the program would need about 0,000 to ramp up. And costs in the third year would be around 6,000.

The goal is for the program be self-sustainable by the third year as money from employers and premiums rolls in.

Travis, Williamson and Hays counties are expected to make a decision on whether they will participate in the project in the next few weeks.