The state’s new health insurance subsidy program for small businesses has not yet filled to capacity, despite early predictions from policymakers that the program would quickly run out of money.

The state’s $15 million premium subsidy, created during last fall’s special legislative session, will cover firms with between two and nine employees. It will work in concert with private insurance companies and pay between $100 and $5,000 toward workers’ annual health insurance costs depending on how much they make and what type of insurance they have. The subsidies may not exceed half of an employee’s annual coverage cost.

The Maryland Health Care Commission has estimated that the program will cover 10,000 workers within 1,500 companies, but the program has not come close to being filled. Del. Shane E. Pendergrass, D-Howard, said at a Maryland Chamber of Commerce event that the program is covering 48 companies and about 250 individuals.

“It’s not moving along as quickly as we’d like,” she said, and encouraged eligible companies to contact her if they are interested. “Funding could be in jeopardy if money is not used.”

Some say the program needs time to get up to full speed, though others suggest that the economy might be discouraging participation in the program, even with the subsidy.

Ronald Wineholt, vice president of government affairs for the chamber, said there were two ways of thinking about the issue.

“One was that it’s such an attractive deal that it would max out … very quickly,” he said. “We thought, given the state of the economy, small employers may be reluctant to initiate a new fringe benefit.”

The chamber is not taking a position on the program, he said, and the organization neither supported nor fought it when it was introduced. Still, Wineholt said it would be a bigger help to small businesses if the state would revisit its policies on “small group” health insurance for firms with less than 50 employees.

The chamber will be pushing next year to change the state’s small-group regulations, which prohibit insurers from incorporating medical history risk into their rates.

Sen. Robert J. Garagiola, D-Montgomery, who is the Senate chair of the Joint Committee on Health Care Delivery and Financing, said he is not surprised that the program is taking time to fill. He said businesses need time to decide if the subsidy will work for them.

Still, he said he does not think the program will be vulnerable to budget cuts next year as the state looks for savings in a 2010 budget that is expected to be short by more than $1 billion. He pointed out the program, which was originally envisioned to cost $30 million, was already reduced in the 2008 legislative session. Much of the money for the program is from a special health fund, rather than the state’s general fund.

“We already slowed the implementation of this program,” Garagiola said. “So there were steps that we were taking earlier this year, being mindful of the fiscal constraints.”