Any day now, the Trump administration will release a final rule allowing greater consumer protections in so-called “short-term, limited duration insurance,” a category of health insurance Congress exempts from federal health insurance regulations, including ObamaCare regulations. In comments I filed on the proposed version of the Trump administration’s rule and an accompanying Wall Street Journal oped, I explained some but not all of the benefits of allowing these consumer protections. What follows is updated and new information about the benefits of allowing those consumer protections.
Introduction
In 2016, the Obama administration arbitrarily prohibited certain consumer protections in short-term plans. First, it exposed sick consumers to underwriting and loss of coverage by shortening the maximum duration of short-term plans from 12 months to 3 months. Second, it prohibited “renewal guarantees” that would protect consumers who develop expensive illnesses from ever facing underwriting or losing their coverage.
Last year, President Trump urged the Department of Health and Human Services to allow short-term plans to last 12 months and to allow consumers to bridge together consecutive short-term plans with “renewal guarantees” that protect them from being re-underwritten after they get sick. With ObamaCare premiums soaring and the consulting firm Avalere warning of “substantial increases” in ObamaCare premiums for 2019, these consumer protections would mean “consumers could purchase health-insurance protection for 90% less than the cost of the average ObamaCare plan.” Renewal guarantees would keep people with expensive conditions out of ObamaCare plans, thereby improving ObamaCare’s pools and reducing the cost of ObamaCare. Along the way, allowing these consumer protections would “increas[e] transparency in government and provid[e] voters and policymakers with better information about the cost of the ACA.”