Remember that famous lie about Obamacare that if you like your health care you can keep it. The grand plan was always to push more Americans — willingly or unwillingly — into government health care.
So no surprise that Biden’s new regulations cripple non-Obamacare insurance options.
Michael Cannon of Cato helpfully explains the latest ploy:
The Office of Management & Budget (OMB) has announced its approval of a proposed rule on so‐called “short‐term limited duration insurance” health plans (STLDI).
Some background. Congress exempted STLDI plans from all ObamaCare regulations. Current STLDI rules, which the Trump administration put in place in 2018, allow the initial plan contract to last 12 months and allow consumers to renew the initial contract for up to 36 months. Longer contract terms and renewals protect patients. They shield patients both from losing their coverage and from reunderwriting (read: higher premiums) after they get sick. Current STLDI rules even extend those consumer protections beyond 36 months by recognizing that federal law imposes absolutely no restrictions on insurers selling standalone “renewal guarantees” that allow sick patients to enroll in a new STLDI plan without reunderwriting after 36 months…
Just about any way Biden proposes to limit STLDI plans would in fact strip actual consumer protections from actual sick patients. That includes:
-
-
- Shortening STLDI contract terms
- Limiting the number or duration of renewals
- Prohibiting renewal guarantees
-
Any one of these steps would cause sick patients to lose their coverage
