WASHINGTON - As a positive sign leading to the Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors-National Association (PHCC) Legislative Conference on March 25, President Bush has reiterated his support of Association Health Care Plans (AHPs), an issue PHCC members will be lobbying for at next week's conference.

At a U.S. Chamber of Commerce event attended by PHCC, the president highlighted the House-passed legislation creating Association Health Care Plans, which would improve access to health care for working families, especially those who work for small businesses.

"Another way to make sure that small businesses can survive and provide care for their employees is through association health plans," Bush stated. "These would provide small businesses the same opportunity that big businesses get, and that is the economies of scale, the economies of purchase, the ability to share risk in larger pools, which drives down the cost of health care for small businesses."

PHCC says it supports AHPs because they would provide its members with more affordable health insurance that could be offered by trade associations like PHCC. The House passed the legislation, the Small Business Health Fairness Act, on a bipartisan basis last June; however, the legislation is stalled in the Senate.

For more information on PHCC's Legislative Conference, visit www.phccweb.org/MeetingRegistration/meeting.cfm?MeetingID=156.

Publication date: 03/15/2004