Very cheap but limited Association Health Plans (that cover, say, a group of scuba instructors) have their own catches.
Among the Bush proposals is to allow small businesses to pool together to buy coverage, an arrangement know as association health plans.
She says she's willing to compromise so bills like Association Health Plans that would allow small business to purchase insurance in pools finally make it into law.
The Congress must also expand health savings accounts, create Association Health Plans for small businesses, promote health information technology, and confront the epidemic of junk medical lawsuits.
Enzi's bill on Association Health Plans hit the Senate floor in May, Snowe worked on a number of compromise amendments, including making more medical benefits mandatory, to address Democratic concerns.
We did two recent telephone polls on the Florida Senate race, the first for the Florida Association of Health Plans in mid-September and the second ending on Sept. 29 for WFTS-ABC in Tampa.
They respond by citing membership-satisfaction polls and insist that those who complain "are being frightened by inflammatory language" about rare occurrences, in the words of Susan Pisano, spokeswoman for the American Association of Health Plans.
"We have a situation where pollsters, consultants, and any other individual in the political arena has basically sent a message to their candidates, 'Run against managed care, '" says Karen Ignagni of the American Association of Health Plans.
"The challenge for us is to demonstrate that we are taking information presented in the polls seriously and that we are making changes when needed, " says Susan Pisano, a spokeswoman for the American Association of Health Plans.
Surveys by the American Association of Health Plans, the industry's trade group, show that many plans have already cancelled the requirement for doctors to get permission for most tests and treatments and that 97% of all medical decisions are approved by health bureaucrats.
Karen Ignagni is president and CEO of America's Health Insurance Plans, a national association of health insurers.
"There are 35 other mandated benefits you have to cover, " said Susan Pisano, vice president of communications for America's Health Insurance Plans, a professional association that represents the health insurance industry.
The trade association America's Health Insurance Plans had launched an intense lobbying and marketing push after the initial CMS announcement.
Also in attendance was the head of America's Health Insurance Plans, which was formed from a merger of the Health Insurance Association of America and another insurance lobby.
Jessica Waltman, senior vice president of government affairs for the National Association of Health Underwriters, said she favored insurance plans offering narrow annual windows in which people could buy policies.
Health plans are also using claims data to identify patients at high risk for rehospitalization and helping coordinate care at home "so patients don't slide back, " says Karen Ignagni, chief executive of America's Health Insurance Plans, an industry association.
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