OPEAA applauds House passage of small business health plan legislation.

* OPEAA applauds House passage of small business health plan legislation--Peter Ariens, President of Stens Corporation and President of the Outdoor Power Equipment Aftermarket Association (OPEAA), applauded H.R. 660, the Small Business Health Fairness Act of 2003, legislation authorizing the formation and multi-state operation of federally certified association health plans (AHPs).

"OPEAA member companies, like other small employers across the country, are truly struggling in today's highly concentrated health insurance marketplace and their workers are also affected by that struggle," Ariens said. "The AHP Bill employs an effective marketplace approach to this problem, and one that involves little if any cost to the taxpayer. For these reasons, enactment of the AHP Bill is OPEAA's top legislative priority this year." Ariens is also Chairman of OPEAA's Legislative and Legal Committee for 2003.

According to OPEAA, the AHP Bill is about providing employees of small-and mid-sized companies the same opportunities for economies of scale, bargaining clout and administrative efficiencies that the Nation's largest employers and labor unions enjoy in the health insurance marketplace, which begins to level the playing field for smaller employers and associations.

Although the AHP Bill easily passed the House in June with a vote of 262 to 162, it is apparently having a tougher battle in the Senate. Some social and advocacy groups are opposing Bill S.545, claiming that it exempts AHPs from state laws and regulations, including mental health benefit mandates, it eviscerates state consumer protections, and it increases health insurance costs for employee groups left out of the new plans.

Thus far, only a few Senators have publicly supported S.545. Although proponents of the bill seek Senate passage by the end of 2003, the popular opinion seems to be that the bill seems unlikely to be considered on the floor this year.