Healthy people. Healthy business.

Funded by Access Health CT Small Business

Frequently, access to health care has been difficult for many people, particularly employees of small businesses. Hear true stories from small business owners about their decision to offer health insurance to their employees and also hear from employees who have benefitted from this decision.

Michael Allen

Michael Allen has more than 25 years’ experience in Network infrastructure engineering, working for Corporate America throughout his career. Michael always had a strong entrepreneurial spirit where he helped co-found Medical Billing of Connecticut a successful behavior health medical billing company. He then went on to establish what is now The Wellness Group which has offices in Oxford and Shelton, providing behavioral health services to the community. Michael’s approach to behavior health is unique where he provides an open inviting environment where you feel at home and relaxed.

Judy Ascano Schuler, P.E.

Ms. Schuler is a co-founder of and serves as the President of East-West Engineering, PLLC. She has 18 years of experience in the civil engineering industry serving both public and private sector clients. Her experience includes project management, design, permitting, and construction support services for land development projects, including residential subdivisions, commercial and retail projects, community projects, and schools.

As a United States Air Force Officer, Ms. Schuler was involved in the cradle to grave execution of numerous design and construction projects and coordinated with Army, Navy, Air Force, and other Department of Defense installation and Command Engineers.

Alexander J. Diaz

Alexander J. Diaz is the owner of Nutmeg State Transportation LLC. He is a husband and father of two. Alex has been in the transportation/ trucking industry for about ten years and has worked for different trucking companies during this time. As a driver, the first place he worked did not offer any kind of benefits leaving him feeling unprotected.

Alex started his business in early 2021 with the goal of establishing a small family owned trucking business where drivers are treated with respect and compensated accordingly. Alex says, “It was important for me to connect with Access Health CT because I wanted to provide my drivers with quality health insurance. I also wanted to allow my drivers the opportunity to get the coverage they needed at an affordable price. Access Health CT allows me to position the company much better when offering employment as many drivers who have interviewed ask about health benefits as one of their first qualifying questions when considering working for Nutmeg State Trans.”

Chris Gray

Offering healthcare to our employees is/was the easiest decision we had when we started our business. I believe you show your appreciation to your employees in many ways, but the most important is having access to affordable and great medical coverage, as well as vision, dental and a 401k plan for the future. We believe this helps in both employee retention and attracting new talented professionals.

I am a veteran of the US Marine Corps and hold an MBA from the University of New Haven. I have lived in Connecticut with my wife and 2 children for 17 years.

Salvatore Marino, Small Business Owner

As owner of SM Mechanical Services in Glastonbury, it was an easy choice to make to provide my team with the option of health care. Being a family-owned company, we strive to take care of our employees as if they are family of our own.

LeeAnn Reynolds

LeeAnn Reynolds is the Director of Operations at Peklava LLC, where she handles accounting, analytics, advertising, and other day-to-day tasks. She knew that having health insurance was important to her because keeping your body healthy is one of the basic steps to living a happy life.