Last month the Trump administration announced that “short-term health plans”. These healthcare plans are non-ACA compliant healthcare plans, meaning they are not required to cover prescriptions, maternity care, mental health, or preexisting conditions.
The Trump administration has said the market is going wild over these plans, but in reality health insurance companies have been slow to act.
Meanwhile, 279 healthcare advocacy groups formally concerns about this policy and opposed it. These groups include American Psychiatric Association, AIDs United, American Lung Association, the American Heart Association, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, the March of Dimes, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Susan G. Komen, AARP, and the advocacy arm of the American Cancer Society.
A lawsuit has been filed by the National Alliance on Mental Illness chief executive Mary Giliberti, who says “This rule change rolls back the clock on Congress’ bipartisan efforts to ensure patient protections and fair insurance coverage of mental illness — and will start a downward spiral that leaves people with mental health conditions right back to where we were, excluded from life-saving healthcare”.
Many other patient advocacy groups have joined NAMI in this lawsuit, including Association for Community Affiliated Plans, Mental Health America, the American Psychiatric Association, AIDS United, the National Partnership for Women and Families, and Little Lobbyists (an advocacy group that represents families of children with serious illnesses).
Will these “short-term health plans” become popular enough to kill the ACA? Will the government listen to what nearly every advocacy group is saying what is best for American citizens? Check back at Idaho Insurance Agency to see!
http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-health-plans-lawsuit-20180914-story.html#
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/9/14/17861618/new-lawsuit-save-obamacare-short-term-insurance
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/lawsuit-aims-block-trump-short-term-health-plans-57831986