U.S. Sen. Rand Paul said Thursday that he'd be "closer" to supporting the GOP's health care bill if more language loosening association health plans found its way into the measure.

Association health plans allow certain organizations, like professional or trade groups, to offer insurance. In theory, then, small businesses, individuals or groups could band together and buy coverage, gaining bargaining leverage with more people.

"What's great about this situation is that it doesn't require a mandate. It requires liberalization of the law," Paul said at an afternoon press conference in Louisville. "It doesn't cost anything — we're legalizing competition."

The junior senator from Kentucky said he's reached out to Senate leadership on the topic but hasn't gotten feedback. He said President Donald Trump was "receptive" to the idea, though.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky's senior senator, is tasked with trying to get the bill through. In Glasgow, Kentucky, on Thursday, he said a bill focused on buttressing the nation's insurance marketplaces will be needed if the effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act fails.

“No action is not an alternative,” McConnell said. “We’ve got the insurance markets imploding all over the country, including in this state.”

The existing bill would fail if just three of the 52 Republicans vote no, since all Democrats are expected to vote against it.

In an editorial for the Courier-Journal, Paul said that association health plans aren't getting enough attention as a "fix" in the larger discussion. He wrote that current rules governing them are "strict" and need to be amended.

"I want to turn the tables on this out of control big business. I want the consumer to be king," he wrote. "I want the insurance companies to come on bended knee to these large groups, forced to negotiate."

The Republican senator appeared at the press conference with representatives from two dozen state groups and organizations who say their members and employees could stand to benefit from association health plans, including Anthem, the Kentucky Farm Bureau, the Kentucky Coal Association and the Kentucky Retail Federation.

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He also mentioned Thursday that he favored separating the federal bill into two separate measures: one to repeal Obamacare and one to replace it.

"My idea when I talk about 'replace' is freedom of choice, competition and allowing things to happen: allowing the market to work, allowing association plans," Paul said.

Emily Beauregard, the executive director of Kentucky Voices for Health, a coalition of health advocacy groups, told the Courier-Journal that association health plans are not the solution to individual market woes.

The plans aren't going to make coverage affordable enough or benefits comprehensive enough for low-income Kentuckians, Beauregard wrote in an email Thursday, adding that "we all need to be concerned about decreased funding for Medicaid and subsidized coverage."

Instead, she suggested, there are ways to build on and strengthen the Affordable Care Act, like a public option or Medicaid buy-in for low-income individuals.

Similarly, Dustin Pugel from the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy expressed concerns about what he called the "heart" of the current health care proposal, which he said is an attack on Medicaid.

"No level of associated health plans will make up for 15 million fewer people covered by Medicaid," said Pugel, a research and policy associate. "The main event of this discussion continues to be Medicaid."

U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth wrote in a statement sent to the Courier-Journal that association health plans lack consumer protections and have a troubled history, some of which involves fraud and bankruptcies.

"Association health plans may sound like a good idea, but these unregulated plans allow insurance companies to cherry-pick the youngest and healthiest workers, which drives up the cost for everyone else," the Democrat wrote in an email.

Kentucky Democratic Party spokesman Brad Bowman wrote in an email Thursday that health care is a right and the lives of Kentuckians shouldn't hang in the "sling of group bargaining power."

Before Paul's press conference, five people were issued federal citations during a sit-in at McConnell's Louisville office to protest the health care bill. An attorney said they were cited with trespassing.

Reporter Darcy Costello can be reached at 502-582-4834 or via email at dcostello@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @dctello. The Associated Press contributed to this report.