To help consumers, Biden takes aim at ‘junk’ health care plans

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The Biden administration's new policy cracking down on 'junk' health care plans may not get a lot of attention, but as stevebenen writes, they'll likely help a lot of consumers — and the larger ACA system.

Near the top of the list was the Republican administration’s 2018 decision toto so-called “short-term” health care plans. To be sure, the ACA was designed to include such plans, but they were only supposed to serve as stopgap coverage for a few months.

The Trump administration changed the rules, opening the door to insurers offering “short-term” plans that would effectively be available for three years. For some consumers, this might’ve seemed like a good deal. After all, these plans made it possible for people to buy much cheaper insurance. But there were serious flaws in this approach that the Republican White House largely ignored.

First, these plans tended to be pretty awful. We’re talking about skimpy coverage that left many Americans with significant medical bills because for one obvious reason: The safeguards and consumer protections at the heart of “Obamacare” didn’t apply to these plans.And third, none of this did any favors to the overall health care system. The more younger and healthier people were encouraged to move toward lower-cost, lower-coverage plans, the greater the cost pressures for everyone else.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the next Republican administration — whenever it exists — tries to reverse course on these developments, but for now, it’s good news for consumers.

 

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