BCBS HealthIssues.com
Association Health Plans
A Step Backward for Small Employers and Consumers
February 2005
Congress is considering legislation to exempt association-sponsored health insurance plans (called Association Health Plans or AHPs) from existing state consumer protections. While promoted as a way to address health insurance affordability problems facing small businesses and their employees, the research overwhelmingly indicates that this proposal will make health insurance less accessible, less affordable and less secure for the vast majority of small employers and individual consumers.
A large number of organizations oppose AHP legislation due to concerns about the impact that it would have on access to dependable and affordable health
insurance, including: the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Cancer Society, the American Diabetes Association, Association of Health Insurance Advisors, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud, the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors, the National Partnership for Women and Families, and the National Small Business Association.
This compendium is intended to inform policymakers about this legislation by summarizing the research examining the impact AHPs would have on healthcare
coverage. Taken together, these studies provide a comprehensive economic,
policy and legal analysis of this proposal.
The overwhelming conclusion reached by these studies is that AHPs would:
* Increase premiums for the vast majority of small employers and their workers;
* Fail to address the problem of uninsured small businesses and workers;
* Lead to widespread plan insolvencies and fraud among these AHPs;
* Make it difficult or impossible for small businesses with older, sicker workers to have access to affordable health coverage; and
* Take away state-based consumer protections that millions of Americans rely on today, including the right to appeal when a health plan denies reimbursement for medical care.
http://bcbshealthissues.com/relatives/100240.pdf
Comment: This report is a compendium of conclusions from fifteen different
sources, all indicating significant adverse consequences of policies supporting Association Health Plans (AHPs). It is quite obvious that this is a political document. But it is crucial to understand whose politics this represents. A cursory glance through the list of opponents to AHPs is revealing:
http://www.protectyourhealthcare.org/allies.html
Though some interests may be on the list partially for self-serving reasons, the great majority are concerned about patient-consumers. AHPs would reduce
affordable access to health care.
If AHPs represent flawed health policy, why is there support for them? The following statement from the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) sheds light on this issue:
“AHPs would allow small-business owners to band together across state lines through their membership in a bona fide trade association, like NFIB, to purchase health coverage for their families and employees. For example, many small-business owners are members of several associations such as NFIB, the U.S. Chamber, the National Restaurant Association or other trade groups. If AHPs became law, a small-business owner could purchase health benefits through any one of these entities that would act much as the human resources department of a large company.”
http://www.nfib.com/page/AHPs.html
Should health care reform be about adding the NFIB and the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce into the equation as additional middlemen, or should it be about
ensuring affordable access to care for everyone?