{"id":8736,"date":"2018-06-29T18:40:54","date_gmt":"2018-06-29T18:40:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=8736"},"modified":"2018-06-29T18:40:54","modified_gmt":"2018-06-29T18:40:54","slug":"trumps-inexpensive-coverage-could-come-with-a-price","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=8736","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s Inexpensive Coverage Could Come with a Price"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>

A new federal rule could allow health insurers to exclude people who are ill or have preexisting conditions from coverage. Photo: Nick Youngson<\/p><\/div>\n

by Eric Galatas<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

AUSTIN, Texas \u2014<\/strong>\u00a0The Trump administration has cleared the way for an unprecedented expansion of inexpensive health insurance that critics say will drive up prices for more comprehensive plans.<\/p>\n

The new federal regulation allows small employers to join together to create so-called association health plans, which are exempt from some critical insurance safeguards. According to Cheryl Fish-Parcham, director of access initiatives with the health care advocacy group Families USA, such plans often end up being so limited that they\u2019re insurance in name only.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t have to provide a minimum value of coverage. They don\u2019t have to provide mental health benefits; they might not have to provide maternity benefits,\u201d Fish-Parcham said. \u201cSo, there are really limited benefits being offered in these plans.\u201d<\/p>\n

The administration has said the plans will spur competition in the insurance market. But critics warn the new rule will lead to more people being denied coverage and more medical bankruptcies.<\/p>\n

Fish-Parcham said these plans also are allowed to discriminate against people who are sick or who have preexisting medical conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis segments the market into a market for the healthy and a market for the sick,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd there are many ways that the market for the sick becomes even more expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added that association health plans are more difficult to oversee, which opens the door for unscrupulous companies to sell very low-cost plans that don\u2019t actually cover medical claims. But, she said, states may be able to step in to weed out the companies that are defrauding consumers.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, that\u2019s going to take resources that states may not have,\u201d Fish-Parcham said. \u201cTheir insurance departments will have to step up quite a lot to oversee these plans.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new rule was drafted by the Labor Department under an\u00a0executive order<\/a>\u00a0signed by President Donald Trump in October of 2017.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Eric Galatas AUSTIN, Texas \u2014\u00a0The Trump administration has cleared the way for an unprecedented expansion of inexpensive health insurance that critics say will drive up prices for more comprehensive plans. The new federal regulation allows small employers to join together to create so-called association health plans, which are exempt from some critical insurance safeguards. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":8737,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8736"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8736\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8738,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8736\/revisions\/8738"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}