WASHINGTON, DC — Dirk Van Dongen, president of the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors (NAW), has sent a letter to Labor Secretary Elaine Chao dismissing a recently released report from the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) regarding association health plans (AHPs). The report, Association Health Plans: Preemption of State Oversight Would Place Consumers and Small Employers At Risk, is described by Dongen as a “self-serving restatement of criticisms long-since addressed by AHP advocates.”
Citing a recent General Accounting Office (GAO) study that demonstrates the overwhelming market penetration of BCBSA plans, which in some states reaches 75%, Van Dongen suggested BCBSA is “driven by its clear dominance of the small business health insurance market to oppose reform.” Van Dongen also pointed to a recently concluded study of employers affiliated with NAW as evidence of the “dire need of the free-market competition AHPs can provide.”