The Trump administration finally released a long-awaited rule that would allow significant expansion of health insurance policies that do not meet all the requirements of the Affordable Care Act, both in terms of what they cover and how much they charge.
The administration says it wants to broaden the availability of so-called short-term insurance plans to give people who buy their own insurance more choices of lower-cost coverage. Critics say that the plans would draw the healthiest people out of the plans that meet the ACA鈥檚 requirements, driving up premiums for those who remain in that market.
And in the wake of last week鈥檚 tragic school shooting in Florida, attention is once again turning to the issue of a long-standing federal funding ban on most gun-related public health research.
This week鈥檚 panelists for KHN鈥檚 鈥淲hat the Health?鈥� are Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Stephanie Armour of The Wall Street Journal, Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times and Julie Appleby of Kaiser Health News.
Among the takeaways from this week鈥檚 podcast:
- The Trump administration鈥檚 proposal for short-term insurance plans may offer some less expensive coverage options, but those plans have a history of leaving patients on the hook if they develop health problems.
- Federal health officials estimated that as many as 200,000 people now buying ACA plans might instead move to buy the short-term plans being proposed. But many analysts suspect the number could be much higher 鈥� and that will mean the prices could rise dramatically in the ACA marketplace plans and cost the federal government more money for the premiums it subsidizes.
- Idaho鈥檚 proposal to allow plans that don鈥檛 meet ACA requirements is being watched closely, but federal officials have not yet tipped their hands about how they will react.
- Although Congress has restricted funding for federal research into gun violence, studies are going forward by other academic researchers.
- A growing divide among consumers is raising concerns. People who buy their own insurance are more frustrated as their costs continue to go up while they see others getting coverage paid for by the ACA subsidies or the expansion of Medicaid.
- Democrats are seizing on the growing concerns over price among people who buy their own insurance to propel talks about establishing a way for more people to be covered by Medicare or Medicaid.
Plus, for 鈥渆xtra credit,鈥� the panelists recommend their favorite health stories of the week they think you should read, too.
Julie Rovner: The New York Times鈥� 鈥�,鈥� by Abby Goodnough.
Margot Sanger-Katz: HuffPost鈥檚 鈥�,鈥� by Jonathan Cohn.
Julie Appleby: Vox.com鈥檚 鈥�,鈥� by Dylan Scott.
Stephanie Armour: The Washington Post鈥檚 鈥�,鈥� by Shefali Luthra of Kaiser Health News.
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