U.S. House OKs small business health plan
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The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday approved legislation that would allow small businesses to pool together to purchase health insurance for their workers.
Backers said the measure would restrain health costs and help cover some of the millions of uninsured working people, but critics said this approach could provide bare-bones insurance to some workers and leave others facing even higher bills.
“The most coveted health insurance available in America is offered by big companies and unions. All we’re trying to do in the bill is to give small employers the same opportunities to provide high-quality health insurance to their employees at competitive rates,” said Ohio Republican Rep. John Boehner, chairman of the Education and Workforce Committee, in debate.
The bill, approved on a 263-165 vote, has passed the House several times in recent years but has always faced opposition in the Senate, even from some influential Republicans. The idea has gained some support in the Senate in the last year or so but probably not enough to win approval in its current form.
The legislation would allow small businesses, trade associations or business organizations to pool their purchasing power together and try to get better prices on health plans.
But it also exempts these Association Health Plans, or AHPs, from many state regulations, prompting opposition from patient advocacy groups and insurers.
Democrats said that could lead to “bare bone” coverage, possibly excluding even such tests as mammograms to screen for breast cancer.
President Bush hailed passage of the act in the House and urged the Senate to follow suit this year.
“By letting small businesses join together to buy insurance at the same discounts big companies get, this bill will help workers and their families have more health care choices and obtain greater savings,” the Republican president said in a statement.
Democrats argued, however, that the AHP plans would be able to choose relatively young and healthy workers, and exclude older sicker ones, who would then face even higher insurance premiums outside the AHP framework.
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