White House’s Bold Plan To Fix Healthcare

NEW HEALTH PLANS: President Trump and his Administration are improving health insurance options for all Americans by issuing a final rule on short-term, limited-duration health plans.

• On August 1, 2018, the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and Treasury issued their final rule on short-term, limited-duration health plans.
• The new rule allows for the sale and renewal of short-term, limited-duration plans that cover longer periods than the previous to a maximum period of less than three months.
• Coverage under short-term, limited-duration plans can now cover an initial period of less than 12 months, with an option to extend the coverage to a maximum duration of 36 months.
• This new rule will increase choices for Americans facing extremely high premiums and create flexible options that are not currently available to individuals.
  • Short-term, limited-duration insurance plans can provide beneficial coverage for multiple groups, especially middle-class individuals and families who have faced large premium increases and dwindling choices over the past 5 years.
  • These plans are expected to be 50 to 80 percent cheaper than Obamacare plans.
• This rule reverses an Obama Administration rule published in late October 2016.
• The rule also clarifies that people can combine these plans with separate commercial products that provide people financial protection from possible future premium increases if they fall ill.

PROVIDING OPTIONS: Short term, limited-duration health plans will help millions of Americans who were shut out of insurance markets due to Obamacare.

• Obamacare has failed to provide affordable, flexible healthcare options for millions of Americans.
  • According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 28 million Americans are without insurance coverage.
• Americans are increasingly being priced out of Obamacare plans. In just the first five years of Obamacare’s full implementation, insurance premiums more than doubled.
  • Unsubsidized Obamacare enrollment has dropped nearly 50 percent from 2016 to 2018.
• In many American counties, options are nonexistent. Over 52 percent of American counties have just one Obamacare exchange insurer.
• This rule does not modify the legal rules related to Obamacare plans (such as pre-existing conditions, EHBs, etc.); it simply gives consumers another option.

DELIVERING ON PROMISES: President Trump has made delivering more affordable and flexible healthcare options and increasing healthcare freedom a key priority.

• In June 2018, President Trump’s Administration expanded options for small firms and self-employed business owners by issuing regulations expanding “association health plans” which allow certain businesses to join together across state lines to purchase health coverage.
• President Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act which, beginning in 2019, eliminated Obamacare’s tax on Americans who couldn’t afford or didn’t want Obamacare coverage.
• In October 2017, President Trump issued his Executive Order “Promoting Healthcare Choice and Competition across the United States.”