Administration pushes association health plan. (Short Takes News at Deadline).

The White House is supporting a plan to allow trade groups and professional associations to offer their members health coverage.

In theory, the groups would be able to reduce health care insurance costs by spreading the risk across employers in different states. The idea is to help give small businesses the same kind of buying power and negotiating leverage that larger employers enjoy.

In announcing his support for this approach, President George Bush said, "It makes no sense, no sense in America, to isolate small businesses as little health care islands unto themselves."

Critics of this concept say that it may be good in theory, but when you try to put it into practice it doesn't work. They claim that by allowing such health plans to jump across jurisdictional boundaries, it weakens protections that states enact to protect their citizens.

James A. Hawkins is a health care writer based in Aiken, S.C. He can be reached by phone at 803/414-2062 or by e-mail at [e-mail].