Cut Rate Health Plans aren't 'Junk' (8/29/2005)

Source: LA Times

Before anyone gets carried away over "Stronger Rules Sought on Association Health Plans" (Aug. 17), let me advise them to consult with the people at the epicenter of the healthcare crisis and not some self-appointed consumer group in Santa Monica.

The healthcare crisis in America begins with Main Street small businesses. Only 41% of firms with between one and nine employees offer small group health insurance to their employees,  Compared with 99% of large firms oofering coverage for theirs,  according to studies by the NFIB Research Foundation and the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Bear in mind that these small firms employ between 80% and 90% of all working Americans. Sixty-five percent of small-business owners not offering healthcare for their employees cite high costs as the reason.

Far from being "junk" policies, association health plans offer an effective corrective to the problem and could do so on an even greater scale if small businesses were not barred by federal law from banding together across state lines to form the same large purchasing pools for healthcare that are allowed for big labor unions and big corporations.