America’s Health Insurance Plans
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| America's Health Insurance Plans | |
|---|---|
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| Abbreviation | AHIP |
| Formation | 2003 |
| Type | trade association |
| Purpose/focus | political advocacy |
| Location | Washington, District of Columbia |
| Region served | United States |
| President | Karen Ignagni |
| Website | ahip.org |
America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) is a national political advocacy and trade association with about 1,300 member companies that sell health insurance coverage to more than 200 million Americans and is thereby funded by the premiums they pay.[1] AHIP was formed through the merger of Health Insurance Association of America (HIAA) and American Association of Health Plans (AAHP).[2][3][4][5] AAHP was formed through a merger between two Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) trade associations, Group Health Association of America and American Managed Care and Review Association.[citation needed] AHIP is a member of CAQH, a coalition of healthcare trade associations and health plans that aims to simplify healthcare administration.
The AHIP Center for Policy and Research is the trade association's research arm.[6] The center publishes research on a variety of forms of private health insurance, often based on survey data gathered from AHIP member companies. The forms of insurance studied include disability income and long-term care insurance as well as different types of medical expense insurance.
AHIP President Karen M. Ignagni[7] frequently serves as a spokesperson for the views of the insurance industry.[8] On September 27, 2007, she appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show opposite Michael Moore, the director of Sicko, to discuss health insurance.[9]
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[edit] Health Care Reform
In response to a past statement by Senator Hillary Clinton that insurance companies "spend tens of billions of dollars a year figuring out how not to cover people" and "how to cherry-pick the healthiest persons, and leave everyone else out in the cold", Ignagni asserted the AHIP endorses the goal of universal coverage, that insurers deny only 3 percent of claims, and that many of those are for experimental procedures that employers do not cover.[10] It lobbies against any government plan, claiming to fear its members would be driven out of business as the government uses its purchasing power to demand much lower prices from doctors and hospitals.[11] An AHIP spokesman has said that 50,000 of its members’ employees have been mobilized to write letters and make phone calls to politicians or attend town-hall meetings to advance the organization’s healthcare reform ideas [12]
[edit] Lobbying
AHIP has spent more than $31.4 million dollars on lobbying from 2005 to 2009, according to the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics. This includes $3.9 million alone in 2009, which paid for the work of 50 lobbyists at eight different lobbying firms. [13]
[edit] Controversy
AHIP's 2005 television ad "Shark Bait" drew harsh criticism for its claim that "lawsuit abuse" by American trial lawyers cost the typical American family $1,200 a year.[14]
While Karen Ignagni is usually pleased to talk about the health insurance industry, in 2009, she has refused to answer questions about her own personal health insurance coverage, as part of the discussion of health care reform. She has declined to answer questions about her own coverage, copay, deductible, or, any other specifics.[15]
On August 27, 2009, Michael Tuffin a spokesman for AHIP, told CNN’s “Lou Dobbs” program that ”every survey shows strong satisfaction for private health insurance,” as part of the organization’s campaign against health care reform. The non-partisan Politfact watchdog organization found that his words were "half-true." In fact, Politifact said polls have found that often the majority of consumers have varying degrees of satisfaction, but are not strongly satisfied. For instance, an ABC News poll in June 2009 about the cost of health insurance premiums found 23 percent were very satisfied, but a combined 75 percent of consumers were somewhat satisfied, somewhat dissatisfied or very dissatisfied (31 percent somewhat satisfied, 19 percent somewhat dissatisfied and 25 percent very dissatisfied.) [16]
[edit] References
- ^ AHIP Accessed 6 April 2007.
- ^ Press Releasedated December 11, 2003 (retrieved November 13, 2007)
- ^ AHIP "Smartbrief" announcing merger
- ^ "Health insurers gain a huge new lobby," New York Times, September 23, 2003
- ^ SARAH LUECK, "Two health trade groups to merge,", Wall Street Journal, September 23, 2003
- ^ AHIP Center for Policy and Research
- ^ ROBERT PEAR New York Times September 16, 2007.
- ^ Sam Youngman, "Clinton plan sparks frenzy," TheHill.com September 18, 2007
- ^ Aoife McCarthy, "Suite Talk: Making room for new faces: A bad day at the office for AHIP?", Politico.com, September 26, 2007
- ^ ROBERT PEAR New York Times, September 16, 2007.
- ^ http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/weekinreview/14abelson.html?ref=us
- ^ http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125107323271252625.html Wall Street Journal, Insurers’ employees counter criticism, Aug 24 2009
- ^ http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientsum.php?lname=America%27s+Health+Insurance+Plans&year=2009 AHIP profile, Center for Responsive Politics
- ^ FactCheck.org: Insurance Industry Ad Makes Fishy Claim About Lawyers
- ^ http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/09/whats-karen-ignagnis-copay Mother Jones, What's Karen Ignagni's copay
- ^ http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/sep/01/americas-health-insurance-plans/strong-satisfaction-health-insurance-coverage/ Politifact, 1 Sept 2009
