President Donald J. Trump's Administration Is Working To Provide More Flexible, Affordable Health Insurance Options For Americans
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.
Donald J. Trump (1st Term), President Donald J. Trump's Administration Is Working To Provide More Flexible, Affordable Health Insurance Options For Americans Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/335920