This week, the Trump administration proposed a new set of rules to undermine the Affordable Care Act by allowing insurers to sell “short-term” health plans, otherwise known as junk health insurance.
These plans can deliberately exclude treatments for conditions that commonly affect women, elderly patients, members of the LGBT community, and veterans. Here are examples of benefits that would be excluded from the plans:
- Prescription drugs
- Prenatal care
- STD treatment
- PTSD and other mental health treatment
- Cataracts
Under the Obama administration, plans like this were restricted because they put sick Americans at a disadvantage. These plans offer a false sense of security for people who are healthy, as they find out their plan doesn’t offer the care they need, if and when they get sick.
The goal of these short-term plans is to attract young and healthy people – which, in turn, leaves behind a pool of older, sicker people in the ACA marketplaces. The result is a significant increase in the cost of health insurance premiums for everyone left in the marketplaces and fewer people overall who sign up for health coverage.
Join us to stand up to these junk health care plans – and fight back against the war on health care.
