Short-Term Health Plans: Still Bad for Consumers and the Individual Market
<p>In June, 14 senators sent a letter to Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price urging the administration to allow short-term health plans to be offered for longer than three months. For a new<em> To the Point </em>post<em>,</em> Georgetown University’s Dania Palanker, Kevin Lucia, and Emily Curran analyzed short-term coverage in the senators’ states.</p><p>The researchers found that, more often than not, these plans discriminate against consumers with preexisting conditions. They also have high cost-sharing and coverage exclusions that result in minimal protection.</p>
<p>Allowing these plans to be extended would further siphon off healthy individuals from traditional health insurance, resulting in a sicker individual-market risk pool, driving up premiums, and putting the market at risk.</p>