AHIP Statement on Essential Health Benefits

For Immediate Release
December 16, 2011

Contact:
Robert Zirkelbach
202-778-8493

Washington, DC – America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) President and CEO Karen Ignagni released the following statement on new guidance from the Department of Health and Human Services on essential health benefits:

"We are carefully reviewing this guidance and agree that it is vital that the final essential health benefits requirement ‘balance comprehensiveness, affordability, and State flexibility.’ As the Institute of Medicine (IOM) made clear in its recent report, ‘state mandates are not typically subjected to a rigorous evidence-based review or cost analysis,’ an issue that should be addressed to ensure affordability for individuals, working families and small employers.”

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Providing Health Benefits for Over 200 Million Americans.