Trump Administration Solution To High Deductibles Appears To Include Even Higher Deductibles

[flamingdem]

http://new.www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-administration-affordable-care-act-rules_us_58a487c8e4b094a129f12af9?y9qz27aj53lodjwcdi

President Donald Trump has frequently attacked the high deductibles and narrow doctor networks in the Affordable Care Act’s insurance options.

But, his administration just proposed regulations that would give insurers a green light to introduce plans with even higher deductibles and narrower networks.

The same regulations could also reduce the amount of financial assistance that lower- and middle-income people receive.

The changes would be incremental and some consumers would see lower premiums as a result. And if insurers are correct, the new rules could also help stabilize those insurance exchanges in which carriers have struggled to make their plans profitable.

But the proposal also offers a preview of how Republicans would actually change the health care system if they succeed in repealing Obamacare.

It turns out their plans diverge substantially from what they are promising.
Trump’s proposal would tighten rules for enrolling in plans

The regulations, which the Department of Health and Human Services released Wednesday morning and are now open for public comment, would change the rules for insurers that sell coverage through the Affordable Care Act’s exchanges or directly to individuals.

The stated purpose of the regulations is to stabilize the law’s exchanges, while Republicans work on a full-scale alternative to the 2010 health care law, which has brought the number of uninsured Americans to historic lows but alienated people who find its coverage to be inadequate or overpriced.

In the three years since the law first took effect, many insurers have lost money because they attracted customers who were relatively sicker than expected ― and failed to charge premiums high enough to cover the ensuing costs.

Those insurers have responded by raising premiums and in some cases leaving markets altogether, as Humana announced on Tuesday. In rural areas and, in a handful of states, some urban ones as well, consumers had very limited insurance choices this past year.

The newly proposed rules, some of which were first reported by The Huffington Post, would seek to help those insurers, partly by tightening enrollment rules, so that it would be harder for people to game the system by waiting until they get sick before seeking insurance.

Consumer advocates have warned that some of these changes could penalize people who really need coverage but would have problems complying with requirements for documentation, or might fall behind on their payments. But insurers have said they are necessary to keep the market functioning.

“The Trump Administration’s ACA rules strike me as making things less consumer friendly and more insurer friendly,” Larry Levitt, senior vice president at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, said on Twitter.
Trump’s proposal would loosen rules for what insurers cover

But the rules would go beyond changing enrollment parameters, and one of the most important would water down the standards for what coverage insurers provide. The Affordable Care Act divides coverage into metal tiers, from bronze (the least generous) to platinum (the most generous), and defines them using a number called “Actuarial Value” that tells consumers, very roughly, what proportion of medical expenses they should expect a policy to cover.

Bronze plans are supposed to cover 60 percent, silver plans are supposed to cover 70 percent and so on. Under regulations the Obama administration issued when it first implemented the law, insurers had a bit of leeway ― so that silver plans, for example, could have a value anywhere from 68 to 72 percent.

The new Trump rules would increase that range, making it 66 to 72 percent.

It might not sound like such a big deal. But, as David Anderson, an analyst at Duke University’s Margolis Center for Health Policy, has pointed out, that means an insurer could boost the deductible on a typical 2018 silver plan by a few hundred dollars. (Anderson has posted some more precise calculations, and the assumptions behind them, on the blog Balloon Juice.)

[MiniMe]

1. BS, if they have lost money it is because of the obnoxious salaries they pay the insurance executive

And CEO