Snowe introduces health insurance legislation

By Deirdre Fulton

WASHINGTON – Next week, the American public will be asked to focus its attention on the 41 million uninsured employees across the nation during national Cover the Uninsured Week. In appropriate timing, Maine Sen. Olympia J. Snowe introduced legislation Thursday that she hopes will help small-business employers provide quality and affordable health care to their employees.

Snowe, as chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, said she has heard compelling cases for association health plans that would allow small-business employers to pool buying power and spread risk in order to offer less expensive health insurance.

"This is the number one issue affecting small businesses across America," Snowe said at a news conference Thursday where she introduced the Small Business Health Fairness Act (S.545) with Missouri Republican Sens. Kit Bond and Jim Talent. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao, Hector V. Barreto, the head of the Small Business Administration, and several other small-business advocates were also in attendance.

Small businesses have much less health insurance buying power than larger businesses and corporations, Snowe said, and association health plans would let the small business community band together to create larger bargaining power. The groups would be regulated by the Department of Labor, a task Chao said would be feasible because the department has experience overseeing similar health plans for larger businesses.

Those who oppose association health plans, like the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, say would deny coverage based on health status, offering insurance only to younger or healthier employees. Snowe said she was "mystified" by these charges.

Language in the legislation, which she said could always be further adjusted, specifically addresses and prohibits this concern about "cherry picking," the senator said.

Another concern, according to Mary Nell Lehnhard, senior vice president of Blue Cross and Blue Shield, is that in states like Maine, which currently has an extensive system of health insurance checks and reviews, consumer protections would be diminished.

"AHPs don't have to do any of this," Lehnhard said after the news conference, referring to the independent reviews and consumer protections that state-regulated insurance plans are obligated to uphold. There are no comparable federal rules for independent review of claim denials or assurances of access to certain kinds of care, she said, adding that in Maine the state insurance commissioner currently enforces such rules. In Maine, for example, state regulations ensure access to emergency room visits and obstetrical-gynecological services that Blue Cross and Blue Shield said would not regulated by the Labor Department.

Published in The Kennebec Journal and The Morning Sentinel, in Maine.