ARLINGTON, Va., March 14 (UPI) -- A chiropractic trade group Tuesday blasted a bill that creates health plans for small business, saying it could deny benefits.
The American Chiropractic Association said in a statement that it strongly opposes the Senate bill -- dubbed the Health Insurance Marketplace Modernization and Affordability Act -- because it would deregulate insurance companies and allow the insurers and small-business owners rather than state lawmakers to decide what healthcare benefits consumers should have.
"As a result, millions of patients could find themselves without crucial health benefits, including preventive health screenings," the group said.
The bill, S. 1955, creates health plans designed especially for small businesses, called association health plans, whereby small-business owners can buy plans through guilds on behalf of the businesses that make up the guilds' memberships.
But the measure would pre-empt state insurance laws, handing over the power to decide health benefits to the businesses and insurers, ACA said.
Under the proposed law, "states would have no recourse to protect residents and they would lose their incentives to enact laws in the future," the group argued.
"S. 1955 would thwart years of state efforts to ensure that consumers have adequate health insurance coverage, including chiropractic," said ACA President Richard Brassard. "As important as expanding health insurance coverage is, particularly in the small business market, it is also important for such coverage to reliably secure patients' healthcare services," he said.
