[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 56 (Tuesday, May 3, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H2750]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        ASSOCIATION HEALTH PLANS

  (Mr. BURGESS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, this is National Uninsured Week. In my home 
State of Texas, there are a significant number of people who are 
uninsured.
  The number of uninsured has increased for the third year in a row and 
that is largely because of the drop of the employer based coverage.
  Mr. Speaker, there is a tool, there is a lever we can pull to help 
stop the drop off in employer based coverage. That lever is called 
association health plans. In fact, this House passed association health 
plans several times during the 108th Congress. The problem is it has 
never been taken up by the other body.
  What are association health plans? This is the ability for small 
businesses of a similar business model to band together and get the 
purchasing power of a large corporation in order to hold the cost down 
of providing insurance to their members.
  Now, nearly 63 percent of all uninsured workers are employed by small 
businesses with fewer than 100 employees. It is estimated that 
association health plans would enable some 8 million currently 
uninsured individuals to receive coverage.
  Mr. Speaker, I was so encouraged because the chairman of the relevant 
Senate committee said this year they were going to seriously take up 
association health plans. In fact, he has charged people on both sides 
of this question to come together and find solutions to finally allow 
association health plans to be available in this country.

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