Trump works to bring back health insurance discrimination, “junk” insurance and worse in on-going wave of administrative attacks on Obamacare. With the loosening of regulatory protections, Americans who are sick (or become sick) are especially at risk of premium increases, coverage denials and rescission based on health status.
By Noam N. Levey.
The Trump administration took new steps Tuesday to loosen health insurance rules, moving to allow the sale of more short-term health plans that do not need to offer consumers a full range of health protections.
The proposed regulations — which represent the latest in a series of administrative attacks on the Affordable Care Act since President Trump took office — could make cheaper and skimpier plans available to more Americans.
But these short-term plans — which could last up to a year under the Trump administration’s proposed new rules — also threaten to further weaken insurance markets around the country and drive up costs for sicker Americans who need health plans that offer a full set of benefits, such as prescription drugs, maternity care or mental health and substance abuse services.
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Rising premiums have squeezed a growing number of consumers, particularly those who earn too much to qualify for government assistance through the healthcare law, often called Obamacare.
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“Young and healthy people could be tempted to purchase these low-premium plans with few benefits, while older and sicker people, like cancer patients, seeking more comprehensive health coverage could potentially be left struggling with rising premiums because of the market divide,” warned Chris Hansen, president of the advocacy arm of the American Cancer Society.
Among the other leading patient groups that condemned the proposed new rules are the American Heart Assn., the American Lung Assn., the Arthritis Foundation, Consumers Union, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and the March of Dimes.
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Association plans do not have to offer a comprehensive set of so-called essential health benefits, a key requirement of the 2010 health law.
Short-term plans, which were limited to three months under the Obama administration, would also be able to skirt the benefit requirements.
Importantly, these plans also could turn away sick consumers, another practice that was banned by the current health law, and they would not have to renew coverage for consumers that develop a medical condition.
That could ultimately split insurance markets in two, creating one cheaper market for healthy people and a second, more costly market for sick patients who need more extensive coverage.
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At the state Capitol in Sacramento, the chairman of the Senate health committee has already introduced legislation to ban short-term plans in California. “Why would we want some kind of substandard, junk insurance to be sold here?” said Anthony Wright, head of Health Access California, a leading consumer advocate in the state.
