Short Term Insurance Will Put You at Risk!

The Trump Administration has taken many steps to weaken the Affordable Care Act also known as Obamacare. What you don't know is that the ACA has many patient protection policies which are at risk of being eliminated.

The introduction of the insurance exchange and mandate for all to have insurance, written into the ACA was to have more people in these exchanges to bring the cost of premiums down. The plan was starting to show this trend when the Trump administration eliminated the mandate and tax penalty on December 22, 2017.

On February 20, 2018, his administration proposed a plan to loosen regulations on short-term insurance. As Trump stated in his October 2017 executive order, he wants to allow short-term policies to last up to a year. The Obama administration capped them at 90 days, Obamacare was designed to eliminate the sale of junk health insurance plans. Short-term plans cost less but don’t offer many benefits and can put you at risk, in a lapse of coverage.

Trump’s administration has argued that this will allow more Americans to “find coverage that meets their needs.” With the new short term plans at a lower cost (and lower benefits) they are attractive to young, healthy people, the change will likely cause a rise in premiums for plans that offer better and comprehensive coverage. Leaving a vulnerable and sicker population at risk of higher premiums.

More concerning are the efforts to deregulate some of these policies. Now insurers could sharply limit benefits, impose caps on coverage and discriminate against people with preexisting conditions.