Short-term health plans will bring long-term pain for patients
A group of national medical associations is calling on a federal court to block the expansion of short-term insurance policies that put buyers and the individual health care coverage market at risk.
The AMA and other organizations representing nearly a million physicians and other health professionals submitted an amicus brief supporting a preliminary injunction against the Trump administration's 2018 final rule on short-term, limited-duration insurance (STLDI). Critics charge the rule creates an unlawful permanent alternative to individual coverage compliant with the original provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA).
The strongly worded brief argues that the rule "sabotages" the ACA and endangers the broad-based risk pools that make coverage affordable.
"The rule will be devastating to the health, well-being and pocketbooks of millions of Americans—and disproportionally so for women, children and the chronically ill," the brief says. The rule would, further, threaten "to undo the ACA's vital patient reforms, moving the health insurance market back to the days where Americans had no or inadequate insurance."
The brief was filed on behalf of the plaintiffs in Association for Community Health Plans v. U.S. Department of the Treasury. They are seeking a preliminary injunction and a permanent end to the rule in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
