Former HHS Secretary Tom Price, MD, believes association health plans — expanded under a forthcoming rule from the Labor Department — could save small businesses, he wrote in an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal.
The proposed rule would broaden the definition of "employer" under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act to allow more flexibility for participation in association health plans. The op-ed touting this rule appears to be part of Dr. Price's agenda to push association health plans, which has been his primary focus since his resignation from HHS, according to Bloomberg Law.
Dr. Price believes association health plans would allow employees of small businesses to benefit from the economy of a large purchasing group, lowering costs for their employers. These lower-cost alternatives would help reverse what Dr. Price sees as a disincentive to create jobs under the ACA.
"Small-businesses owners need affordable health care, and they want their employees to have it, too," he wrote. "Association health plans will disrupt the marketplace in exactly the right way, by creating more competition, more choices and lower costs."
Read the op-ed here.
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