Biden takes swipe at 'junk' insurance, medical fees in latest Bidenomics pitch

President Biden is moving to crack down on “junk” insurance and loopholes that leave Americans with surprise medical bills.

He outlined the health care moves Friday as part of a broader push to scrap hidden fees on everything from airline seats to concert tickets and sell his vision of “Bidenomics” that focuses on middle-class and low-income Americans.

Mr. Biden said his administration will propose rules that shorten the duration of short-term health insurance plans, which critics refer to as “junk plans,” to three or four months at most, instead of the three years allowed by the Trump administration. The president said the plans are often misleading and do not cover the suite of conditions required by Obamacare plans, the signature Democratic program that Mr. Biden is promoting.

The administration pointed to a case in Montana where a man faced a $43,000 bill because his short-term insurer claimed his cancer was an uncovered preexisting condition.

“Folks, that’s not health insurance, that’s a scam. It has to end,” Mr. Biden said to applause in the White House East Room.

The administration also wants to close a loophole in which health plans contract with hospitals but then say some services at the site are not covered.

For instance, sometimes a pregnant woman delivers her baby at an in-network hospital "only to find out that the anesthesiologist who cared for her is actually out-of-network,” a White House fact sheet said.

The administration will tell health providers to declare services either out-of-network or in-network instead of being in some hazy middle-ground.

Another aspect of the initiative will crack down on doctors and hospitals that sign patients up for third-party medical credit cards and loans to help pay for care.

“They get charged higher interest rates as a result of that. It’s wrong, it’s wrong,” Mr. Biden said. “Evading the law and playing games to charge patients outrageous prices has to end.”

Mr. Biden is promoting a consumer friendly agenda ahead of the 2024 election cycle and contrasting it with trickle-down “Reaganomics.”

“The folks at the bottom have a shot, they get a chance to raise up, and the wealth still do very well, it’s not to hurt anyone at all,” Mr. Biden said.

But the pitch comes with perils, given Republicans are blaming Mr. Biden for high government spending and consumer inflation that is battering Americans' wallets.

The National Republican Congressional Committee, the campaign arm of the House GOP, pointed to a Friday jobs report that showed a significant percentage of new jobs in June were government posts and thousands of people were nudged into part-time work due to “business conditions.”

“Bidenomics just means more government bureaucrats propped up by Democrats' reckless spending that fuels the inflation crisis. Meanwhile, people are forced to take part time work just to put food on the table,” NRCC spokesman Will Reinert said. Mr. Biden is also promoting the impact of last year’s tax-and-climate bill, which capped out-of-pocket spending on medicines for seniors in Medicare’s prescription-drug benefit at $2,000 per year.

The administration said nearly 19 million seniors, or about one in three enrolled in Medicare Part D, will save an average of $400 per year when the provision goes into effect in 2025. Nearly 2 million enrollees who use high-cost drugs will save $2,500 per year. Overall, the administration expects seniors to save $7.4 billion per year in their out-of-pocket spending.

Mr. Biden also pledged to defend a portion of his signature legislation that allowed Medicare, for the first time, to negotiate down the prices of certain drugs. Some drugmakers have sued over the rules, saying they amount to government price-setting and extortion.“We’re gonna see this through,” Mr. Biden said. “We’re gonna stand up to Big Pharma.”