New Hampshire Attorney Lawyer

For small entrepreneurs speak of insurance, usually on health insurance costs.In his State of the Union Address, President Bush has little hope for small business owners struggle with the cost of health insurance. Bush has asked Congress to approve the creation of club or health plans or AHPs, with which small businesses to buy tapes and insurance rates cheaper, as at present, on their own.

Small businesses have been lobbying for years for AHPs, during the last year, which is a house to approve AHP bill, but the measure died in the Senate. Small Business lobbyists are confident that the confirmation of Mr. Bush, it is AHPs by Congress this year, despite opposition from some within the insurance industry and Medicare in some small enterprises at the reception .

AHP lautstärksten one of the groups associated with it owners and entrepreneurs, which represents 23000 companies in the construction sector, most of them small.

“The type of construction requires a lot (health insurance) to provide,” said Katie Strong, Washington, group director of legislative affairs. But she said of small construction companies, for her, given that outside market prices of health, they can not expect to be killed. ”

The problem is that small businesses are not able to achieve the same economies of scale as a company of tens of thousands of employees, plus the premium increases by two. According to the National Federation of Independent Business, lobbying for the creation of AHPs, 60 percent of more than 40 million Americans uninsured work for small businesses.

But AHPs controversial in some quarters. The proposal allows the formation of AHPs would allow federal insurers to manage the state coverage requirements and offer a policy across the country. Currently, a policy of insurance must be independent of the magnitude of the task in the state in which insurance is sold. Several countries have margin requirements, so that a company in New York, for example, may not be able to buy a policy in New Hampshire. With this state to eliminate obstacles, was able to buy a larger number of companies in the same policy of reducing costs for everyone.

At the same point is a part of the reason is not all business supporters believe AHPs are the solution. Todd McCracken, president of the Washington-based National Small Business Association, worries that AHPs may be more harm than good. “They (the AHPs) can not cover more expensive to some,” said McCracken, adding that sicker or older workers could be forced to other covered. Or a society want to help its workers would be forced to buy more expensive coverage by another supplier, but the victory AHPs.

The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association is part of forces against AHPs. “An exception of the fundamental rules of consumer protection for this type of insurance would be a disaster and result in higher premiums for groups of older workers, and often uncontrolled increases in premiums for groups of workers and sicker fraud,” warned the BCBSA President and CEO Scott S. Serota after the State of the Union television.

The American Association of Health Plans believes AHPs is unfair vis-à-vis the existing plans in health, the rules of the game According to the AAHP President Karen Ignagni, overlap and duplication of provisions of the State a major obstacle to affordable health coverage and measures must be taken to improve the uniformity of rules applicable to companies offering health care period. But we absolutely disagree with a concept that would leave this labyrinth of regulations on the role of health plans and consumers, who depend on them, while the application of specific rules for a specific market segment. “