America’s Health Insurance Plans

America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) is a national political advocacy and trade association with about 1,300 member companies that provide health insurance coverage to more than 200 million Americans. AHIP was formed through the merger of Health Insurance Association of America (HIAA) and American Association of Health Plans (AAHP). AAHP was formed through a merger between two Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) trade associations, Group Health Association of America and the American Managed Care and Review Association.

In 2006 alone, AHIP spent $7,080,000 on lobbying. . Their 2005 television ad "Shark Bait" drew harsh criticism for its mathematically dubious claim that "lawsuit abuse" by American trial lawyers cost the typical American family $1,200 a year. The AHIP Center for Policy and Research is the trade association's research arm. The Center publishes research on a variety of forms of private health insurance, often based on survey data gathered from AHIP member companies. The forms of insurance studied include disability income and long-term care insurance as well as different types of medical expense insurance.

Karen M. Ignagni, the current president of America’s Health Insurance Plans, frequently serves as a spokesperson for the views of the insurance industry, recently taping an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show opposite Michael Moore to discuss Sicko. . In response to a past statement by Senator Clinton that insurance companies "spend tens of billions of dollars a year figuring out how not to cover people" and "how to cherry-pick the healthiest persons, and leave everyone else out in the cold", Ignagni asserted that AHIP endorses the goal of universal coverage, that insurers deny only 3 percent of claims, and that many of those are for experimental procedures that employers do not cover.