Political Quotes

“I rise to introduce the Association Health Plans Act of 2019. I have been championing association health plans, which I sometimes call small business health plans, for more than 15 years. As a small business owner, I understand firsthand the difficulties these employers face trying to provide health insurance for their employees. Small business owners want to provide comprehensive health insurance to their employees, but it can be a real struggle to afford those plans. In part due to these pressures, the number of small businesses offering coverage has dropped substantially over the years, from 47 percent in 2000 to 30 percent in 2017. Few families are shielded from the rising costs of healthcare and, by extension, the rising cost of health insurance, but among the hardest hit are American small businesses. Small businesses have limited ability to pool risk and lack coverage in the market, so they often end up paying more for health insurance than large employers who have more buying power. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, small businesses pay about 8 to 18 percent more on average than large businesses for the same health insurance policy. To put it another way, one family shoe store probably can't get an insurance company to play ball, but 1,000 family shoe stores probably could. This is the premise of the association health plans.…”