Trumpcare 2.0 has weaker pre-existing conditions protection than Trumpcare 1.0
Casey Quinlan
Policy reporter at ThinkProgress.
Apr 6
Trumpcare 2.0 has weaker pre-existing conditions protection than Trumpcare 1.0
Experts say that high-risk pools haven’t worked in the past and won’t work in the future.
For their second attempt at passing the American Health Care Act (better known as “Trumpcare”), House Republicans will add an amendment allowing for “high-risk pools,” Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) announced on Thursday. But that amendment isn’t likely to allay fears that the legislation will deliver substantially worse health care for vulnerable patients.
High-risk insurance pools are insurance programs for people with preexisting medical conditions. Premiums for these plans tend to be higher, but state high-risk pools are publicly subsidized. Still, critics of these plans say the costs are difficult to budget for, and that recipients of these plans can be forced to wait long periods of time before receiving care.
Thirty-five states had high-risk pools before Obamacare passed and mandated that regular marketplace plans cover preexisting conditions. The federal government also had a high-risk pool to assist with the transition to Obamacare.
In place of the ban on screening for preexisting conditions, the Republican amendment would create a federal insurance pool for people with particularly expensive medical conditions. The idea is that through subsidizing coverage for patients with serious preexisting conditions, premiums would fall for healthier patients. House Speaker Paul Ryan said the amendment has “been embraced by a broad spectrum” of the House Republican caucus — presumably including both the relative centrists and far-right Freedom Caucus members whose irreconcilable differences sank Trumpcare the first time around.
“We have come together in a new amendment that we all believe will lower premiums and provide added protections to those facing real challenges gaining access to affordable care,” Speaker Ryan said.
If the bill passes, the federal high-risk program would begin in 2020 and $15 billion would be allocated to it.
It’s unclear if that funding level would be sufficient. Larry Levitt, senior vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation says it isn’t nearly enough
Past experience also suggests that a federal high-risk program would have trouble adequately insuring people with preexisting conditions.
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https://thinkprogress.org/trumpcare-2-0-has-weaker-pre-existing-conditions-protection-than-trumpcare-1-0-110bd0d05cb3
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