CREATING NEW HEALTHCARE PLANS: President Trump’s new rules on short-term, limited-duration health plans will increase health insurance options for Americans.
- On August 1, 2018, the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and Treasury issued their final rule on short-term, limited-duration health plans.
- The new rule allows for the sale and renewal of short-term, limited-duration plans that cover longer periods than the previous maximum of less than three months.
- Coverage under short-term, limited-duration plans can now cover an initial period of less than 12 months, with an option to extend the coverage to a maximum duration of 36 months.
- This new rule will increase choices for Americans facing extremely high premiums and create flexible options that are not currently available to individuals.
- Short-term, limited-duration insurance plans can provide beneficial coverage for multiple groups, especially middle-class individuals and families who have faced large premium increases and dwindling choices since Obamacare was first implemented.
- These plans are expected to be 50 to 80 percent cheaper than Obamacare plans.
- This rule largely reverses an Obama Administration rule published in late October 2016.
- The rule also clarifies that people can combine these plans with separate commercial products that provide people financial protection from possible future premium increases if they fall ill.
PROVIDING OPTIONS: Short term, limited-duration health plans will help millions of Americans who were shut out of insurance markets due to Obamacare.
- Obamacare has failed to provide a suitable healthcare option for millions of Americans.
- According to the Centers for Disease Control, 28 million Americans are without insurance coverage.
- Americans are increasingly being priced out of Obamacare plans. In just the first five years of Obamacare’s full implementation, insurance premiums more than doubled.
- Under the prior administration’s policies, unsubsidized Obamacare enrollment dropped 20 percent from 2016 to 2017, including a 73 percent decline in Arizona.
- In many American counties, options are nonexistent. Over 52 percent of American counties have just one Obamacare exchange insurer.
- This rule does not modify any rules governing Obamacare plans (such as pre-existing conditions or essential health benefit requirements); it simply gives consumers another option.
DELIVERING ON PROMISES: President Trump has made delivering more affordable and flexible healthcare options and increasing healthcare freedom a key priority.
- In June 2018, President Trump’s Administration expanded options for small firms and self-employed business owners by issuing regulations expanding “association health plans” which allow certain businesses to join together across state lines to purchase health coverage.
- President Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act which, beginning in 2019, will eliminate Obamacare’s tax on Americans who cannot afford or do not want Obamacare coverage.
- In October 2017, President Trump issued his Executive Order “Promoting Healthcare Choice and Competition across the United States.” Today’s action flows from that order.