Date: 2003-06-19
Speaker: SAM JOHNSON (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Madam -Speaker. to my friend. the gentleman from New Jersey . that is total misinformation. And I would agree that the gentleman is politicizing this bill. But he is doing it. not US. This bill makes it illegal to cherrypick. This bill does not eliminate any form of insurance and the gentleman stated it did. It does not stop insurance companies from insuring on whatever they want to insure. And as a matter of fact. they probably will. Furthermore. one million more people became uninsured in the past year and it was primarily because of small businesses getting out of thd insurance business because it is too expensive. And I think that there is the one way in which we can ensure that people will be insured. more of them through small businesses. As a matter of fact. a private study has said about 8.5 million more will be insured. Under our bill. sick or high risk groups or individuals cannot be denied coverage. Moreover. AHPs are severely limited in their ability to charge higher rates which my cohort said would happen. They can not charge higher rates for sicker people or groups within the plan. AHPs can only charge different rates to the extent allowed under the law of the State where the employer is based. The bill contains strict requirements under which only bona fide professional and trade associations can sponsor an AHP. and these organizations must be established for purposes other than providing health insurance for at least 3 years. Now. there is considerable comment about AHPs being exempts from State coverage. As we all know. labor unions a~id large corporations that selfinsure are already exempt from State health care mandates. and they provide quality benefits because it is in the best interest of their employees. And I will charge you that small business would apply the same reasoning..It is really a moral fairness issue. If it is good enough for labor unions. good enough for Fortune 500 companies. it ought to be good enough for small business. We must remember that our ultimate goal here is to bring quality coverage to the 41 million Americans who have no insurance. Further. AHPs will significantly expand access to health coverage to uninsured Americans by increasing small businesses bargaining power with health care providers by giving employers freedom from costly Statemandated benefit packages. According to a private study. as I said. AHPs should increase the number of insured Americans by up to 8.5 million people. Sadly. last year one in seven Americans went without health insurance. The increase in the number of uninsured comes solely from the declining market in the small business community. With health insurance costs continuing to rise. businesses face increases more than double the national average. Health insurance costs are still rising and many small employers are forced to drop health coverage. Some cannot even offer it in the first place. The cost saving -benefits of AHPs would help small employers of main street access coverage at a more affordable price. According to the Congressional Budget Office. AHPs would save small business owners and their employees as much as 25 percent of their health insurance costs. Just like buying a case of soda at a supermarket costs less per can than buying 24 individual cans at a vending machine. AHPs would allow groups like the National Restaurant Association to buy thousands of health insurance policies at a lower person policy cost and pass the savings along. Let us face facts. Costs are rising. Businesses are dropping coverage. and more people are going uninsured. Congress must address the uninsured problem and move forward with increasing the insured through association health plans. It is the least this Congress can do to make certain that the American people will receive better health care at a more reasonable price. Madam Speaker. I reserve the balance of my time.