Even though Trump is allowing Short Term plans to come back, and even flourish for people that don’t want to pay the super high pricing of a fully insured plan with benefits they neither want or can use, CA lawmakers are putting a stop to it. The thinking is that Short Term plans are not a good idea because people need to be in either the Covered California fully insured plans with all of the “essential benefits” that the ACA has set up, or through a traditional insurance carrier on one of the same plans.
People want to be able to make the choice when it comes to their coverage
Overwhelmingly, people support the idea of making their own choice when it comes to their health care. If someone is 55 years old they probably don’t need maternity coverage, or pediatric dental and vision benefits. The argument is that WHY should they have to pay for it. I get angry calls constantly from people complaining about how they have to pay for coverage they don’t need, and wanting an alternative. Short Term plans would have been one of those options.
Skewed risk pools and helping to cover everyone is the flip side argument
The other side of the coin is that some people believe that IF people were allowed to purchase these Short Term Plans, with limited coverage, a few things would happen
- People would not understand what they are purchasing and get themselves into trouble when they don’t have coverage for something they THOUGHT they were covered for
- The only people that would purchase these Short Term Plans would be the healthier people, thereby skewing the risk pool with more sick people and insurance companies having to pay out big bucks on these people on an unbalanced level
- The Short Term Plan insurance companies would most likely be located out of CA. Because of that, the CA lawmakers feel that they would have little recourse to hold them accountable for any “issues” that occur.
CA has pushed for Single Payer or Universal Coverage for years
Depending on who you talk with, CA has wanted to move to the Universal Coverage platform for many years now. The problem is how to pay for it. By some estimates, it would cost CA into the TRILLIONS over a 10 year period, limit choice and create chaos.
Hey…not easy answers here. If I had one, I’d be very famous. Its a complicated subject and EVERYONE has an option.
Steve Brauer-Principal, Brauer Insurance Services, (877) 421-4325. www.brauerinsurance.com