HEALTHCARE/OBAMACARE(ACA)/PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The Trump administration rejected on Thursday [3-8-18] Idaho’s plan to allow the sale of stripped-down, low-cost health insurance that violates the Affordable Care Act…
While rejecting Idaho’s plan in its current form, Ms. Verma encouraged the state to keep trying, and she suggested that, ‘with certain modifications,’ its proposal might be acceptable. President Trump has repeatedly criticized and undermined the Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama’s signature achievement, saying it drove up insurance costs for millions of Americans. But Ms. Verma said that Idaho’s plan to circumvent the law was unacceptable. If the state does not enforce the coverage requirements of the federal law, she said, the federal government will…
The Trump administration said this bulletin contravened the Affordable Care Act in several ways. It would allow insurance companies to charge higher premiums to people with pre-existing conditions. People with such conditions could be denied insurance for up to 12 months if they had not maintained ‘continuous prior coverage.’ Insurers could impose caps on the dollar amount of benefits available to consumers. And insurers would not have to provide all of the ‘essential health benefits’ required by the Affordable Care Act. For example, the Trump administration said, Idaho insurers could, in some cases, omit coverage of maternity care and of dental and vision care for children.
Ms. Verma said that Idaho had other options and could perhaps achieve much of what it wanted to do under a regulation proposed last month by Mr. Trump.”
-Robert Pear, “Trump Administration Blocks Idaho’s Plan to Circumvent Health Law,” The New York Times online, Mar. 8, 2018