Trumps quiet campaign to bring back preexisting conditions

[babylonsister]

Trump’s quiet campaign to bring back preexisting conditions
The administration is waging a quiet regulatory war against Obamacare.
By Sarah Kliff and Dylan Scott Feb 22, 2018, 8:10am EST


The Trump administration is quietly dismantling the Affordable Care Act, taking a series of regulatory steps that will make it easier for insurance companies to sell plans that exclude patients with preexisting conditions or don’t cover basic services like maternity care, mental health treatment, and prescription drugs.

Republicans weren’t able to repeal Obamacare in Congress. Now the Trump administration appears to be settling for the second-best thing: weakening Obamacare’s insurance regulations, changes that will hurt Americans who are older and sicker while benefiting the young and the healthy.

The Health and Human Services Department published new rules Tuesday that widen access to “short-term” health plans, a small subset of insurance products that are meant to cover short gaps in insurance coverage. The Obama administration aggressively regulated these plans, allowing insurance companies to sell them only as 90-day options.

The Trump changes allow insurance companies to sell the skimpier plans for a year, encouraging many more people to buy them and use them as a more regular source of coverage. Officials are also considering allowing insurance companies to extend them further.

These plans are likely to attract young and healthy consumers, leaving behind a pool of older and sicker patients in the Obamacare markets and driving up the prices there.

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https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/2/22/17033588/trump-obamacare-preexisting-conditions