EDITORIAL: Trump’s newest health reform based on wishful thinking, not reality
So it is especially frustrating that President
The individual market serves around 7 percent of Americans -- those who don't get private coverage through employers or public coverage through programs such as Medicare. On Thursday, Trump announced an executive order to allow individual market consumers to buy coverage through "association health plans" or through individual "short-term" plans that run the duration of year. This, Trump said, will finally allow these consumers to escape what he dubbed the "nightmare of Obamacare."
But a reality check isn't kind to Trump's initiative, which has received a thorough drubbing in advance from respected organizations such as the
The Affordable Care Act, passed under former President
Despite Trump's high-flying rhetoric Thursday, his executive order isn't innovative in the least. It simply allows certain types of health plans to operate outside some or all of these vital ACA safeguards and, potentially, state oversight. The plans that would qualify are association health plans (AHPs), which allow people with a common interest, such as a trade, to band together and buy insurance. Short-term plans, which typically are allowed to cover only a few months but could cover a whole year under the Trump change, also would be eligible.
It's unclear at this point how many consumers would seek or qualify for the coverage. Or how soon they might have this option. Still, this is a door that should not even be cracked open.
AHPs have been tried before with alarming outcomes. Some have been used "as a vehicle to sell fraudulent coverage to hundreds of thousands of unsuspecting consumers," the
But it isn't just consumers who would buy these plans who would be at risk. People with serious medical conditions, meaning they need traditional comprehensive insurance, could see massive increases in coverage costs. If too many healthy people bought skimpy coverage under the new Trump plan, there wouldn't be enough people buying good coverage through the ACA to spread out the cost of medical care and keep these more comprehensive plans affordable. Insurers would also exit.
The result is that the Trump plan actually could cause the insurance market "death spiral"
Legal challenges to the executive order are expected and merited. And it will take time for federal agencies to roll out.
Trump's plan disingenuously suggests there are fast, easy solutions to lower coverage costs without sacrificing care. Americans are ill-served by presidential policy promoting this fantasy.
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