"On the critical issue of health care, our goal is to ensure that Americans can choose and afford private health-care coverage that best fits their individual needs. To make insurance more affordable, Congress must act to address rapidly rising health-care costs. Small businesses should be able to band together and negotiate for lower insurance rates, so they can cover more workers with health insurance -- I urge you to pass Association Health Plans."
-- Speaking to Congress during the 2004 State of the Union address

"One of the problems that small businesses have is that they enter into the market, if they're trying to provide traditional insurance, without any risk pool behind them. If you've got three people you're trying to insure, it's a heck of a lot more expensive then if you're trying to insure 3,000 people or 10,000 people. In other words, the more people that are in the risk pool, the lower the cost of traditional insurance is for a small business. And so I look forward to working with the Congress to expand what we call associated health plans. 

"The bill passed the House of Representatives; it remains stuck in the United States Senate.  I urge the Senate for the sake of affordable health care for small businesses and their employees to pass associated health plans."
-- Speaking at Wendy's International Headquarters Feb. 15, 2006, in Dublin, Ohio.