insurers would only have to provide access to coverage for people with pre-existing conditions. It says nothing about the rates of that coverage.<\/p>\n
That means if the AHCA passes, it would allow for people with pre-existing conditions to be charged more per year for their insurance coverage \u2013 possibly to the tune of thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars more per year, some studies have found. . . .<\/p>\n
For people with pre-existing conditions, states could allow insurers to charge more if they set up a high-risk pool or participate in a new federal invisible risk-sharing program.<\/p>\n
Medical professionals question the quality of care those pools would provide.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
So what\u2019s going on?<\/p>\n
It depends, so far as I can tell, on how one responds to the \u201ccontinuous coverage\u201d requirement. \u00a0And it\u2019s another one of those \u201cdepends on what the meaning is. . . \u201d sort of questions; in this case, what does it mean to \u201cprotect\u201d people with pre-existing conditions?<\/p>\n
If one judges it a perfectly reasonable requirement, in order to keep people from gaming the system and signing on to health insurance only after they have a diagnosis they need to purchase treatment for, then individuals are, indeed, protected from ruin. \u00a0They can change insurance any time they wish, whether from employer-paid to individual or vice versa, or move to a plan with better customer service, or which offers a better network upon moving to a new town, etc. \u00a0A young person can move from a family policy to their own policy, and someone who\u2019s moved out of poverty can move off of Medicaid to a private insurance policy, and maintain the protection of a community rating.<\/p>\n
If one says that people drop their health insurance for perfectly valid reasons (or up until now still haven\u2019t bought insurance despite the Obamacare subsidies) and shouldn\u2019t be punished for lapses in coverage, then one would agree with the Politi-fact claim that pre-existing-ers are no longer protected.<\/p>\n
And in a perfect world, people would consider at least the cheapest possible catastrophic plan to be a necessity every bit as much as food and housing. \u00a0As it is, there are, and have historically been, plenty of middle-class families, employed at small businesses or self-employed, who decide that there\u2019s no visible benefit to health insurance, especially if it means that they wouldn\u2019t be able to buy a middle-class, suburban home, or afford a new car, or what-have-you \u00a0\u2014 but, at the same time, the reality is that there are plenty of people who, as it is, struggle to pay the rent on time, and, if health insurance were added into the mix, would be letting it lapse in the same way as they pay their rent or mortgage late, gathering up cash just barely in time to avoid eviction or foreclosure, or get past-due notices on their electric bill, build up balances on their credit cards, and so on.<\/p>\n
If there were tax credits sufficient for some sort of particularly inexpensive policy, that\u2019d be a different story. \u00a0(Vouchercare,<\/a> remember?) But there aren\u2019t, without bumping up the value of the credits. \u00a0in principle, there could be \u201cemergency health insurance assistance\u201d programs in the same way a there are programs to help people with short-term assistance paying other bills. \u00a0But there\u2019s not. \u00a0(There isn\u2019t really much assistance for things like emergency rent assistance, except through charities.)<\/p>\nSo are people with pre-existing conditions protected? \u00a0Yes. \u00a0But for many of them, it may not matter.<\/p>\n
[Update: \u00a0is there room for compromise? \u00a0What about expanding the clause on lapsed health insurance so all, for example, a lapse due to unemployment, or income low enough that no available policy could be purchased for less than X% of income, even taking available credits into account? \u00a0Perhaps some attention to how far behind a customer is permitted to fall behind in premium payments before the policy is cancelled? \u00a0We should at least be able to address this question before getting lost in a frenzy of \u201cRepublicans have taken away pre-exisiting condition protection!\u201d)<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Image: \u00a0https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File%3ADoctor_examines_patient_(1).jpg; By Unknown photographer [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s surprisingly difficult to get a good picture of what\u2019s going on in the new GOP healthcare bill. \u00a0Here\u2019s a summary from CNN\u00a0and another from the New York Times. \u00a0 Here\u2019s a breakdown of winners and losers from NPR. \u00a0Here\u2019s commentary by Megan McArdle on death spirals, and from Charles Krauthammer on the seeming inevitability […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":5217,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[356,623],"class_list":["post-6509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-health-insurance","tag-trumpcare"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/p>\n