America's Health Insurance Plans


America's Health Insurance Plans is an American political advocacy / trade association of health insurance companies known for certification of Medicare Advantage and other health plans governed by CMS: Medicare Core Quality Measures.

History

AHIP was formed in 2003 by the merger of Health Insurance Association of America and American Association of Health Plans.
The association's 2005 television advertisement "Shark Bait" drew criticism for its claim that "lawsuit abuse" by American trial lawyers cost the typical American family $1,200 a year.
On August 27, 2009, a spokesman for the association told CNN's Lou Dobbs program that "every survey shows strong satisfaction for private health insurance," as part of the organization's campaign against health care reform. The non-partisan Politfact watchdog organization found that his words were "half-true." In fact, Politifact said polls have found that often the majority of consumers have varying degrees of satisfaction, but are not strongly satisfied. For instance, an ABC News poll in June 2009 about the cost of health insurance premiums found 23 percent were very satisfied, but a combined 75 percent of consumers were somewhat satisfied, somewhat dissatisfied or very dissatisfied.
On the July 10, 2009 edition of Bill Moyers Journal, Wendell Potter, former Vice President of corporate communications at the health insurance corporation CIGNA, claimed that the industry was "afraid" of the Michael Moore documentary Sicko. As a result, the association formed a strategy to discredit the film. As part of the reporting on this allegation, Bill Moyers Journal leaked May 2007 and June 2007 drafts of a memo entitled "Ensuring Accurate Perceptions of the Health Insurance Industry".
In 2015, two major American health insurance companies, UnitedHealth and Aetna, left the association; in 2017 a third large insurance company, Humana, also left.
It was a co-founder of the Partnership for America’s Health Care Future in 2018. Also in 2018 Matt Eyles became President and CEO.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the association spent more than $181.8 million on lobbying from 1998 to 2019; in 2018, $6.7 million was paid for work by 44 lobbyists from seven different lobbying firms.