As the campaign heats up, ACA opponents will say they'll protect people with pre-existing conditions if the Supreme Court overturns the law, as President Trump is arguing. The question is whether they have specific plans to accomplish that and maintain a stable insurance market.
If you want to protect people with pre-existing condition, you need to ensure:
1. No denial based on health.
2. Community rating.
3. Benefit requirements.
4. No pre-existing condition exclusions.
5. No annual or lifetime limits.
6. Subsidies to encourage healthy people enroll.
1. No denial based on health.
2. Community rating.
3. Benefit requirements.
4. No pre-existing condition exclusions.
5. No annual or lifetime limits.
6. Subsidies to encourage healthy people enroll.
The questions above are the important ones to ask if President Trump follows through on an executive order promising to protect people with pre-existing conditions if the Supreme Court overturns the ACA.
This recent bill from Senator Cory Gardner provides some protections for people with pre-existing conditions, but it leaves out a big one: Insurance companies would still be able to deny insurance entirely to people who are sick.
congress.gov/bill/116th-con…
congress.gov/bill/116th-con…
The ACA includes income-based subsidies to make health insurance more affordable and encourage people to sign up before they get sick. Without some mechanism like that, protections for people with pre-existing conditions would cause a premium "death spiral."
