HEALTH

White paper on association health plans
Small Business Administration

Econometrica is supporting the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) by researching and writing a “white paper” that summarizes the current state of knowledge regarding Association Health Plans (AHPs). AHPs that allow the collective purchasing of health insurance by bona fide trade or professional associations have been proposed to improve bargaining power, economies of scale, and administrative efficiencies for small firms that choose to provide worker health insurance. Our work under this contract includes: (1) Review the policy-relevant literature on the current state of the research on AHPs and significant issues that affect them; (2) Based on the literature, investigate how expanding health coverage for uninsured small business employees could be achieved through widespread adoption of AHPs; and (3) Identify policy alternatives available to policymakers at the Federal and State levels through adoption of AHPs to expand the health coverage for employees at small businesses.