"Dear AAHU Member Now that the Georgia Legislature is in full swing for the 2007 session, your legislative team for the Georgia Associations of Health Underwriters is working hard to provide our thoughts to our friends at the Capitol about new laws they are considering. Hopefully you have gotten word about Senate Bill 28 which is currently pending. Much of our focus regarding that bill has been placed on the provisions in Chapter 62 regarding "the Exchange", and rightfully so. But there are other provisions of Senate Bill 28 that I think are also of great interest to our members. One important part of Senate Bill 28 deals with Association Health Plans. An important committee of Georgia Senators recently held hearings regarding Association Health Plans. The following report contains a letter composed by Shan Ricketts of Purchasing Alliance Solutions who is also an officer of both our state association and our sibling chapter in South Atlanta. Shan took the time to testify before the committee and to share his specific expertise regarding association plans with the Senators. The attached letter contains his thoughts and impressions resulting from his testimony. I wanted to share Shan's write up of the meeting with you so that you could be more informed regarding important issues that affect your industry and Shan has graciously given me permission to share it with all of you. As you should already know, Thursday January 25th is our annual GAHU Day on the Hill breakfast at the State Capitol. With so many important issues going on, your support of this meeting is crucial. Even if you are unable to attend the breakfast, it would be an excellent time for you to contact your state elected officials. Your voice coupled with those of us who will actually be at the Capitol will help get the attention of our representatives. Thank you for all that you do to support of AAHU and Georgia's private insurance market. Trey Tompkins President Atlanta Association of Health Underwriters"   The good news! GAHU attendees were: Michael Wardrip, David Johnson, Jennifer Hillert (NAHU) and Shan Ricketts. Senator Ralph Hudgens opened the meeting with a story of his daughter paying paying $1,200 per month for individual family coverage (with spouse and 3 kids). He wanted to look into helping more individuals to be able to join group plans (to "save" money). His idea was to expanding current AHP legislation and allow non-employer based membership organizations to offer group coverage to each of their independent, individual members. Many people were called upon to speak including Michael and Shan, some carrier lobbyists (BCBSGa, Humana, Aetna, Farm Bureau) and some organizations/Associations (NFIB, Association of Health Plans, Georgia Dentists Association, Georgia Chamber of Commerce). The meeting went well as Senator Ralph Hudgens truly wanted to learn about our industry and how we could help more people become covered. We were immediately able to explain to him how adverse selection would not allow an Association plan to survive if it were opened to "anyone". As we did this, we were also fortunate enough to explain to the Senators how allowing insurance companies outside of Georgia to be given the ability to sell mandate-free plans would severly damage our marketplace. This led to a discussion on pooling and how insurance in general profitably functions and survives. Ultimately, our voices were heard and Senator Hudgens decided that expanding current AHP law in Georgia would do more harm than good. The Senators also seemed to grasp a little about the complexities of insurance and the damage that a knee-jerk reaction might cause. Don't know if it would ever slow them down in the future, but it could not have hurt. The bad news! Senator Judson Hill was also there at the table. He made several comments that made it pretty obvious, he has bought into the Exchange/Individual market model (only) - hook, line and sinker. In my personal opinion we need to prepare for a long, steady and sustained resistance to this or everyone in Georgia is going to have coverage that looks a lot like HillaryCare. We'll follow Michael's lead I'm sure, but I would encourage everyone to plan on investing at least 1 partial day this session to protect your livlihood. If SB28 were to pass as written, it would be catastrophic. Thanks Michael for all you do to keep us alive and well. We couldn't do it without you. Shan Shan Ricketts Executive Vice President "Your Sales Assistant" Purchasing Alliance Solutions, Inc. 736 Johnson Ferry Road, Bldg C-200 Marietta, GA 30068 Phone: (770)579-1214 ext Toll Free: (800)782-8254 ext Fax: (770)565-1822 Toll Free Fax: (866)782-8254