As Kate points out, Association Health Plans, the vehicles through which small businesses would purportedly band together to obtain cheaper health insurance if only those pesky insurance regulators would get out of the way, are a bit of a Trojan horse. And if AHPs won’t solve the very real problems that small businesses face in finding affordable health insurance for their employees, why are small business associations like the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) and the Chamber of Commerce pulling out all the stops to pass this legislation?

An article that appeared in the Wall Street Journal a few years back fills us in on the supporters of this perennial legislation:

The National Federation of Independent Business has sold Republicans on a conservative answer to expanding health coverage: a new kind of insurance policy that trade associations could offer members…What they don't emphasize is the significant benefits this could provide the NFIB, a major Republican Party benefactor. If the Bush administration and congressional leaders push association health plans into law, the NFIB could reap more than $100 million of annual revenue by selling policies, according to one estimate.

And now an article that appeared yesterday in The Hill raises this point again:

Trade associations have long been in the business of helping their members buy various types of insurance. Typically, the associations get a royalty or a fee from the insurance company they contract with. In other cases, the association merely acts as a referral service to insurance providers they have researched.

I guess that could explain it.