Association Health Plans

The President supports legislation that provides for the creation of association health plans, to enable small employers to provide better and more affordable health care coverage options for their employees - like those that many large employers can offer. This provision would allow large industry associations and other groups formed on the basis of factors other than expected health care costs to pool together to offer health insurance options.

Through the establishment of uniform federal standards for association health plans, small employers will be able to achieve greater purchasing power, administrative efficiencies, and flexibility in benefit design. Strong Federal certification and solvency standards will assure that all healthcare benefits promised by the new association health plans would be there when needed, and design and offering requirements will assure that the associations provide consistent services to all eligible small businesses regardless of their expected medical costs.