For Immediate Release:
Contact: Kelly Broadway, 202-808-8853
[email protected]
Washington, D.C. – The following statement is in support of Congressman Tim Walberg’s (R-MI) bill, the Association Health Plans Act (H.R. 2528). It should be attributed to Joel White, president of CAHC.
“Small businesses are drowning in healthcare costs. Chairman Walberg’s Association Health Plans Act offers a critical lifeline, enabling small businesses to join together and use their collective strength to negotiate lower cost, higher quality health coverage for their employees.
Over the last decade, small businesses have taken it on the chin. Federal and state rules have made it more difficult and costly for mom-and-pop employers to offer affordable coverage to their employees. Less than one-third of small businesses now offer coverage, and most say high costs are the reason. Their employees must get insurance through ACA plans, which have much higher deductibles and limited access to doctors and drugs. Or they go to Medicaid, where access to care is worst in class.
Association Health Plans (AHPs) provide small businesses the option of banding together to provide coverage that expands access to doctors and drugs at a lower cost to employees, employers, and taxpayers. Congress should pass the AHP Act now.”
On Wednesday, the Committee on Education and Workforce’s Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions will hold a hearing entitled, “A Healthy Workforce: Expanding Access and Affordability in Employer-Sponsored Health Care”. The AHP Act will be featured in testimony.
For more about AHPs, please find Joel White’s previous testimony to the committee here.