INDUSTRY GROUP WORRIES ABOUT RISE IN FAKE INSURANCE POLICIES
self-employed people to join together to buy or provide insurance in the large-group market through association health plans.
Because they will be exempt from many requirements of the 2010 health law, Trump has said, the association health plans can “provide more affordable health insurance options to many Americans, including hourly wage earners, farmers, and the employees of small businesses and entrepreneurs that fuel economic growth.”
The new health plans might, for example, appeal to restaurant workers, real estate agents, dry cleaners, florists, plumbers and painters, officials said.
Under the rule, Acosta said, “business associations from city chambers of commerce to nationwide industry groups can offer health care insurance to the employees of their employer members through the largegroup market.”
Republicans in Congress have been trying for two decades to promote association health plans through legislation. Now the Trump administration is using its regulatory authority to accomplish what Congress could not.
Trade groups like the National Restaurant Association, the National Retail Federation and the National Federation of Independent Business have supported association health plans and could potentially sponsor them.
But consumer groups, state officials and Blue Cross Blue Shield plans have expressed concern. They say association health plans will tend to attract employers with younger, healthier workers, leaving behind sicker people in more comprehensive, more expensive plans that fully comply with the health care law.
People with serious illnesses like cancer could face “ever-increasing premiums for comprehensive coverage,” said Chris Hansen, president of the lobbying arm of the American Cancer Society.
Similar health plans have a history of fraud and abuse that have left employers and employees with hundreds of millions in unpaid medical bills. The problems are described in dozens of court cases and enforcement actions taken over more than a decade by federal and state officials.
In past years, the Labor Department said, it has identified many “unscrupulous promoters who sell the promise of inexpensive health benefit insurance, but default on their obligations.”
The Coalition Against Insurance Fraud, representing insurers, consumer groups and law enforcement officials, met with Trump administration officials last month and emphasized the need for states to have a strong role in combating possible fraud by association health plans.
“Tens of thousands of innocent consumers and small businesses were victimized by a surge of fake health insurance plans that swept across the country in the early 2000s,” James Quiggle, a spokesman for the coalition, said Tuesday. “We have to avoid a repeat of that sorry history.’’
In another move this summer, Trump is expected to issue a final rule expanding access to “short-term, limited-duration” insurance, allowing such policies to run for 364 days instead of the current limit of three months.
These plans — originally intended for people between jobs — are cheaper than comprehensive insurance, provide fewer benefits and would also be exempt from many requirements of the health care law.