AHP Bill Wending Its Way Through Congress

“This is a ceiling with great preemption of states,” he said. “It doesn’t have to be this way.”

Dan Danner, executive vice president of the National Federation of Independent Business, celebrated passage of the bill, calling it “a good day for small business owners.”

The NFIB is a member of the Small Business Health Plan Coalition, which has worked to promote the legislation in Congress. Similar legislation, he noted, has been approved by the House eight times over the past decade.

“SBHPs will level the health-insurance playing field and give participating small businesses the same buying power as Fortune 500 companies and unions by allowing them to band together through trade and professional associations to purchase affordable health benefits,” he said. “By joining together across state lines, small employers will enjoy savings from greater bargaining power, economies of scale and administrative efficiencies.”

Several groups also voiced their opposition to the bill before the vote, including advocates for diabetics, chiropractors, taxpayers and the National Conference of Insurance Legislators, Troy, N.Y.

In a letter sent to Sens. Enzi and Nelson on March 14, a group of NCOIL’s current and past officers and committee chairmen voiced concern over the bill’s “one size fits all” approach and the possibility that it could lead to adverse selection.

“Adverse selection would trigger a fragmentation of the market, which, ultimately, could contribute to the nation’s growing underinsured and uninsured populations and place significant additional pressure on the ‘high risk pools’ currently available in the states,” said the NCOIL members, including president Frank Wald of North Dakota and past president Craig Eiland of Texas.

NCOIL also raised the issue of consumer protections.

“In its current form, the bill also allows insurance companies to sue states for injunctive and/or equitable relief but ironically provides no such relief for consumers against insurers,” they said. “Without state officials to depend on for assistance or an opportunity to legally challenge insurers, consumers will be isolated in times of need.”