{"id":374134,"date":"2018-08-20T13:20:15","date_gmt":"2018-08-20T12:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/a-junk-solution-to-a-real-problem\/"},"modified":"2018-08-20T13:20:15","modified_gmt":"2018-08-20T12:20:15","slug":"a-junk-solution-to-a-real-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/a-junk-solution-to-a-real-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"A Junk Solution to a Real Problem"},"content":{"rendered":"
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After <\/span>failing to overturn most of the Affordable Care Act in a very public fight<\/a>, President Donald Trump has been steadily working behind the scenes to further <\/span>destabilize former President Barack Obama\u2019s signature achievement<\/a>. A major component in this effort has been an activity called <\/span>rule-making<\/a>, the administrative implementation of statutes by federal agencies like the Department of Health and Human Services.<\/p>\n

Most recently, citing excessive consumer costs, the Trump administration issued <\/span>regulations<\/a> to vastly expand the availability of short-term, <\/span>limited duration insurance plans<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While the <\/span>cost of health care<\/a> <\/span>is one of the overwhelming problems in the US health care system, short-term health plans do nothing to alter the underlying causes. Indeed, these plans may cause great harm to individual consumers while simultaneously threatening the viability of many states\u2019 insurance markets. Having studied the US health care market for years, here is why I think states can and should take quick action to protect consumers.<\/p>\n

Comparing Crab Apples and Oranges<\/h2>\n

Short-term, limited duration insurance plans, by definition, provide insurance coverage for a short, limited period. <\/span>Since being regulated by the Health Insurance Portability Act of 1996 (HIPAA)<\/a>, this has meant for less than one year. Sold at least since the 1970s, they were offered as an alternative to major medical insurance intended for individuals with temporary and transitional insurance needs such as recent college graduates or those in between jobs.<\/p>\n

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However, after passage of the Affordable Care Act <\/span>further concerns emerged<\/a> <\/span>over the misuse and mismarketing of these kinds of plans. As a result, the <\/span>Obama administration restricted<\/a> <\/span>their duration to three months.<\/p>\n

In addition to being shorter in duration, these policies\u2019 benefits tend to also be much skimpier than for those plans sold on the Affordable…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After failing to overturn most of the Affordable Care Act in a very public fight, President Donald Trump has been steadily working behind the scenes to further destabilize former President Barack Obama\u2019s signature achievement. A major component in this effort has been an activity called rule-making, the administrative implementation of statutes by federal agencies like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-374134","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374134\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}