Trump moves to loosen health insurance rules
Short-term plans could allow fewer benefits, uncapped costs
WASHINGTON — 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 Donald 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.
That would erode the health law’s guarantee that access to insurance would no longer depend on a person’s health.
Trump administration officials billed the proposed new regulations as a step to make health insurance more affordable.
“Americans need more choices in health insurance so they can find coverage that meets their needs,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. “The status quo is failing too many Americans who face skyrocketing costs and fewer and fewer choices.”
Rising premiums have squeezed a growing number of consumers, particularly those who earn too much to qualify for government assistance through the health care law, often called Obamacare.
But the Trump administration’s new proposal is expected to generate widespread opposition from consumer advocates, patient groups and many physicians, who worry that looser insurance rules will leave patients without key protections and erode coverage for people who need it most.
“Young and healthy people could be tempted to purchase these lowpremium 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 Association, the American Lung Association, the Arthritis Foundation, Consumers Union, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and the March of Dimes.
The administration is already under fire for proposing last month to make it easier for self-employed Americans, small businesses and others to band together to get health insurance through what are called association health plans.
Association plans do not have to offer a comprehensive set of socalled 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 banned by the current health law, and they would not have to renew coverage for consumers who 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