Ducey signs bill allowing new small business insurance plans

PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey has signed legislation letting small businesses join together and create new health insurance plans backers say will lower costs.

Many Democrats and public health advocacy groups opposed the new “association health plans” that don’t have to comply with many Affordable Care Act rules. They say the law Ducey signed Wednesday allows plans that don’t cover essential services and can charge older workers and women higher premiums. They call them “junk” insurance plans.

Republican backers and some House Democrats rejected that characterization. The proposal by GOP Sen. Kate Brophy McGee will allow small employers to band together to create self-insurance pools or to negotiate lower insurance rates.

The Trump Administration approved the plans but a federal judge in late March invalidated the rules. The government is appealing.