President Trump’s Executive Order to Extend Short-Term Plan Length
Tuesday, President Trump’s administration proposed a way for Americans to receive short-term health plans that do not follow ACA protocol. As many know, the ACA holds short-term plans to meet certain requirements in order to be purchasable by citizens. What exactly was proposed by the administration? Today, I’m going to expound on the Trump Administration’s plan to extend the capabilities of short-term health plans.
What Is a Short-Term Plan?
First, short-term plans were meant to help those between jobs or college students not covered by their parent’s health plan for a few month increments. Furthermore, short-term plans originally had to be compliant with covering all of the essential benefits, such as an ACA plan. Some of these benefits include treatments related to unexpected illness or injury, outpatient visits to the doctor, emergency room visits, hospital stays, etc. Compared to an ACA plan, the one big difference in a short-term plan is that there is underwriting and no guarantee issue.
Trump administration is now hoping to rewrite federal rules that will extend the time consumers can have short-term plans from three months to 12 months. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar stated that this would be a step towards introducing Americans to insurance options that are affordable and more individualized.
Obamacare Impact
Obamacare has previously had rules against long-term short-term plans, but it seems the Trump Administration is still slowly picking away different regulations originally in place. This is the second time that our President has issued an executive order to increase the availability of health plans outside ACA regulation. If passed, some short-term plans may exclude the ten essential benefits and change pricing. This could allow for cheaper insurance with less coverage.
Pros and Cons
With short-term plan extensions and easier access, some might wonder about the cons of the potential executive order. Most noteworthy, the biggest con is the fact that short-term plans will poke holes in the ACA. With the new laws, it will be easier for people to get around laws in the ACA. Meanwhile, the pros outweigh the bad with opportunities to purchase insurance at lower prices and for their situation in life. Stay tuned for more information to see what the outcome of this executive order will be. For a more detailed look at the bill, check out this article here.
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