Does Anyone Understand This Health Care Fight?

Last week, during our semi-regular weekly survey of what’s goin’ down in the several states, we noted that Idaho seems to have determined that the way to kill the Affordable Care Act is simply to ignore the law. It appears that this is the administration*’s general plan, too, although they’re a bit more creative about it. From Vox:

    The US Department of Health and Human Services’ new proposed regulations would allow Americans to buy short-term insurance for up to 364 days. That coverage is allowed to skirt several of the health care law’s core provisions: Plans can deny people insurance based on their medical history, charge them higher premiums because of their preexisting medical conditions, and craft skimpy benefits packages that will appeal mostly to young and healthy people. By broadening the definition of short-term insurance, the Trump administration is opening more loopholes for more people to buy insurance outside the health care law’s marketplaces. In the eyes of the administration, this is fulfilling a campaign promise that President Trump made to give people relief from Obamacare. “It’s one step in providing Americans with health insurance that is both more affordable and more suited to individual and family circumstances,” HHS Secretary Alex Azar told reporters on Tuesday... “This appears to be a backdoor way of undermining the Affordable Care Act,” Kevin Lucia, who studies the markets at Georgetown University, told me last fall when Trump issued his executive order to expand short-term insurance and association health plans, which set the stage for the new regulations.



SOURCE: YAHOO NEWS