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WASHINGTON, July 27 (UPI) -- House lawmakers passed a controversial bill that allows small businesses to join together to buy lower-cost health insurance.
Under the legislation, which was approved Tuesday by a 263-165 margin, small firms across the country would be able to create association health plans, or AHPs, for the purpose of negotiating group rates for employee healthcare coverage.
The bill is designed to decrease healthcare costs for small employers, who usually pay higher prices than large companies for their workers' coverage. It does so mostly by exempting such plans from coverage mandates usually applied to larger plans -- often including minimum maternity hospital stays and limits for mental-health treatments, provisions in effect in most states.
"These mandates drive up the cost of premiums," said Rep. Sam Johnson,Ralph Lauren Hoodies, R-Texas, who chairs the House Subcommittee on Employer-Employee Relations. "All we're trying to do is give small employers the same opportunity as large employers."
Supporters also consider the bill a way to assist some of the 45 million Americans currently without health insurance. Many of them work full time in small firms, but they cannot afford to purchase coverage because of high and rapidly rising health-insurance costs.
The bill marked at least the eighth time association health-insurance legislation has passed the House of Representatives. Each time,Women Nike Lunar, the measures have been blocked by a Senate unwilling to follow through.
Consumer groups oppose such plans because they avoid state coverage minimums and because they would operate outside of state laws banning insurers from denying coverage or charging higher prices to businesses based on their workers' health status.
The exemptions could allow healthcare providers to "cherry pick" only the youngest and healthiest workers, leaving sicker and more expensive employees with standard insurance, opponents said.
"This bill will not result in a reduction in the number of uninsured," said Rep. Robert E. Andrews, D-N.J. "When the premiums go up on the rest of the pool,Women's, fewer people will be insured."
The White House released a statement Tuesday saying association health plans "would provide access to quality, affordable health benefits for millions of workers and their families."
Rep. Charlie Norwood, R-Ga., who chairs the House Subcommittee on Workforce Protections, said on the House floor that he would reluctantly support AHPs, though he would attempt to alter the legislation before it reaches the president's desk.
"If you start getting sick, you're going to be in trouble because premium is going to be so high that you can't afford it," Norwood said. "I dearly hope I'm wrong."
The bill faces high hurdles in the Senate, where leaders such as Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., who chairs the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, has said the House bill lacks the votes to pass.
Enzi said he currently is trying to work out a compromise between traditional health insurers and small-business groups that will soon lead to a different legislative take on AHPs.
"This is something members of Congress have been asking for," Enzi told reporters.
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Todd Zwillich covers healthcare policy matters for UPI Science News. E-mail: sciencemail@upi.comTopics related articles：


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