Trump’s health care order: Can it make NJ insurance cheaper?
"It could allow these insurance programs to expand their reach and diversify their portfolio if they choose to, but this is a very difficult thing to accomplish," said
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"They're starting from scratch," he said. "They have to build or rent a network, adjust claims operation. It's not a snap-of-a-finger approach."
After months of failing to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, Trump on Thursday used an executive order, calling on his administration to propose new regulations that will lead to lower health insurance costs.
It was the latest in a string of actions he has taken to try to unravel the law. Thursday night, the
Those are different than the subsidies thousands of other consumers receive to lower the price of premiums. Still, the elimination of the so-called cost-sharing subsidies could cause insurers to increase premiums or leave markets, experts have said.
Open enrollment for 2018 for consumers who buy individual policies on the Obamacare market begins
"We always talk about this and run in circles and wind up back at the beginning," said
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Trump's executive order likely wouldn't be put into effect by the time open enrollment begins in two weeks; it only outlined his proposal with a broad brush, asking the Labor, Health and
Among the ideas is to allow association health plans, which are overseen by states instead of the federal government, to sell across state lines.
It isn't new to
For example:
And organizations like the
Their plans aren't subject to Obamacare. But they are regulated by the
And the state has strict financial requirements to ensure the associations have enough to pay all of their customers' claims.
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"It's not a magic bullet for lower prices," said
It remained unclear from Trump's order whether associations would continue to be limited to employers, or if individuals could join, too.
And there were concerns about how the scenario would play out. What would happen, for example, if an association based in a lightly regulated state offered New Jerseyans low-cost insurance plans without covering many services?
It could give healthy consumers financial relief and the bare-bones policies that suit them. But it also would leave riskier consumers on their own, their insurance companies raising their premiums to keep up with the cost.
"You are selecting only the people that don't cost a lot to insure, don't cost a lot to cover," said
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