NAEDA President Comments on Association Health Plans

FENTON, Mo. – North American Equipment Dealers Association Presdient James Meinhardt is calling on Congress to pass the Small Buisness Health Fairness Act. The act, if passed, would allow the creation of Association Health Plans to give NAEDA-affiliated dealers the opportunity to provide “affordable health benefits to their employees.”

Meinhardt’s comments were submitted to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. The committee is considering legislation (S. 406) that would allow bona fide trade associations to offer health plants.

“Beacause of the complex web of state regulations, dealers have found that many insurance carriers have dropped coverage in their state, sometimes leaving small employers with only one or two options of insurers,” wrote Meinhardt. “In this environment of little competition, it has allowed insurance rates and costs to dealers to soar.”

NAEDA offered health insurance benefits for more than 50 years. However, the association’s insurance trust, which once operated in 32 states, became idle more than five years ago when it couldn’t get an insurance carrier to underwrite the program. Moreover, a number of NAEDA-affiliated associations offered health programs on a state or regional basis and many of those programs also were idled by cumbersome regulations.

Meinhardt, a stockowner of KanEquip, a Kansas-based dealership, cited the challenges he faces to provide health benefits to employees at seven dealership locations. “Our health insurance costs since 2000 have increased more than 100 percent,” noted Meinhardt. “We currently provide insurance benefits to approximately 100 employees. I, like many of my fellow dealers, am concerned about escalating insurance costs and how to control those costs without reducing or eliminating insurance coverage for our employees.”

NAEDA and its U.S. affiliated associations “are hopeful Congress will approve S. 406 so we can again offer an AHP program that would enable dealers to expand affordable health benefits to their employees.”

Meinhardt’s comments were submitted to the committee following the association’s recent trip to Washington. The visit included dealers, NAEDA representatives and affiliated association executives. The annual visit is made to give association representatives the opportunity to meet with members of Congress and discuss the issues that are important to dealers and the equipment industry.

The North American Equipment Dealers Association is based in Fenton, Mo. It provides educational, financial, industry relations, legal and legislative services to more than 4,500 dealers in the United States and Canada.