ASAE President & CEO John H. Graham IV, CAE will send a letter to Congress this week reiterating the role of associations in providing affordable health care.
Dear Senator:
The American Society of Association Executives (“ASAE”) is a section 501(c)(6) individual membership organization of more than 22,000 association executives and industry partners representing nearly 12,000 tax-exempt organizations. Its members manage leading trade associations, individual membership societies, and voluntary organizations in every state as well as in 50 countries around the globe.
ASAE has long been advocate for the ability of associations to provide health insurance to millions of Americans. Because people and businesses join associations for the purpose of personal and professional development, associations are uniquely positioned to provide this array of benefits not only for members but for members’ organizations and business partners. Because of the common interest of their members, associations are organized for greater purposes than merely selling insurance, a critical distinction in the debate over the underlying motivation in providing access to health insurance. Associations are not affinity groups or businesses with the goal of profiting from the insurance market.
As you debate comprehensive health care reform, be mindful that the association community is structured and able to serve as a conduit for providing insurance to millions of Americans who otherwise may have few options in obtaining affordable insurance. Associations are structured to represent their members and possess the infrastructure, administrative and communicative mechanisms, and experience necessary to unify employers and employees into stalwart providers of health services. Associations can serve as a conduit for health insurance coverage by covering not only their own employees and employees’ families, but their members, members’ companies.
To give a specific example, ASAE has partnered with Spring Consulting Group to provide a model for associations to provide insurance for members and employees that reflects the intent of comprehensive health care reform. Anticipating certain changes to the industry, ASAE and Spring Consulting Group stand prepared to be the benchmark for association insurance offers and a model for how an association can not only provide affordable insurance for its employees but also its members. I would welcome the chance to share with you our business plan as it evolves and demonstrate how associations could provide affordable health insurance within any health care reform legislation.
As Congress debates the best ways to provide affordable insurance to all Americans, whether through public insurance plans, member cooperatives, or other vehicles, it is important that associations be considered one such vehicle to ensure affordable and universal coverage. Please contact me or Jim Clarke, Sr. Vice President, Public Policy at (202) 626-2865 or jclarke@asaenet.org if you have any questions about health care and associations.
Sincerely,
John H. Graham IV, CAE
President and CEO
ASAE
