States Fight non-ObamaCare Health Plans
The Trump administration’s new policy of expanding the sale of “short-term” insurance plans as a cheaper alternative to ObamaCare is quickly running into opposition from state regulators.
The Department of Health and Human Services is urging states to cooperate with the federal government, but instead, insurance commissioners are panning the new plans as “junk” insurance and state legislatures are putting restrictions on their sales.
State insurance officials argue that, despite being less expensive than ObamaCare plans, the short-term plans are bad for consumers and aren’t an adequate substitute for comprehensive insurance.
“These policies are substandard, don’t cover essential health benefits, and consumers at a minimum don’t understand [what they’re buying], and at worse are misled,” California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones (D) said.
What’s really cheaper than Obamacare is no insurance at all. Until you need treatment for something. Details, details!
” . . . the short-term plans are bad for consumers and aren’t an adequate substitute for comprehensive insurance.”
For the Trump Administration, that’s a feature, not a bug.
To piggy-back on Joel’s comment –
“These policies are substandard, don’t cover essential health benefits, and consumers at a minimum don’t understand [what they’re buying], and at worse are misled,”
Just like Trump University……………….as Joel said – a feature, not a bug.
Sandi:
Joel is correct as well as you.
The issue here is cost. The cost is not “really” in the insurance. It is in the healthcare in what it is supposed to cover. People are not using more healthcare as much as the prices of healthcare whatever it is are increasing.
“Healthcare expenditures in the US being high and rising rapidly is nothing new, but the study appearing in the Journal of the American Medical Association identifies the exact components of healthcare that are driving those soaring costs. The data from this study suggests traditional economic forces break down in the US healthcare market.
Different chronic diseases have different patterns of price increases. The biggest increase was seen in diabetes care, as you can see here, driven largely by the rising costs of pharmaceuticals.”
The Chart breakdowns reveal the various impacts of healthcare costs moving from left to right and then downward:
• 50% of the increase in healthcare costs was simply due to higher prices.
• Inpatient care or Service Utilization (purple) went down from 1996 – 2013 as outpatient treatment increased; however, the price of the remaining inpatient care went up much more – increasing overall inpatient care spending by around $250 billion.
• Different Chronic Diseases have different patterns of price increases. The biggest increase was seen in diabetes care and driven largely by the rising prices of pharmaceuticals.”
as taken from here: Healthcare Costs and Its Drivers Today You do not have to believe me, please read the links. And yes Joel is correact as you are also. Maggie Mahar and I wrote extensively on healthcare. She retired due to a disorder and I still preach.