President Donald Trump announced his administration's rules for association health plans last month at the 75th anniversary party of the National Federation of Independent Business, but the group now says it will not set up its own association health plan because the new rules are unworkable, according to Politico.
The NFIB has supported association health plans for years, but it says the Trump administration's rules for them are complex and do not eliminate previous roadblocks, specifically the restrictions that only allow businesses that share an industry or are located in the same state to form association health plans.
"We can’t set up an AHP under the new rules any more than [we] could under the old rules," the group's spokesperson, Adam Temple, told Politico.
In the early 2000s, the NFIB led a coalition of over 80 business groups expressing support for association health plans.
"AHPs will allow small-business owners to band together across state lines through their membership in bona fide trade associations, like NFIB, to purchase health coverage for their families and employees," the NFIB wrote in a 2003 report, according to Politico.