The repeal of the individual mandate included in the tax law backed by Rep. Bruce Poliquin and Sen. Susan Collins has paved the way for the Trump administration to enact measures that new research predicts will cause huge spikes in insurance premiums and threaten coverage for more than 50,000 Mainers.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services introduced a rule change last week that will now allow “junk insurance” plans, or cheap alternatives that do not include the essential health benefits mandated by the Affordable Care Act, such as coverage for pre-existing medical conditions.
According to a new study released by the Urban Institute on Monday, this move would destabilize the entire insurance market by undermining the more comprehensive plans and artificially drive up insurance premiums.
Brad Woodhouse, campaign director of the health care coalition Protect Our Care, said the new report “shows the high price Americans will pay for Republican health care sabotage.”
The study looked at what will happen in 2019, when the individual mandate is scheduled to end–meaning that individuals who sign up for short-term or junk insurance will no longer be subject to a tax penalty.
In Maine, rates are expected to grow by an average of 15.9 percent. The Urban Institute also predicts that the introduction of junk plans will cause 51,000 Mainers to lose comprehensive health coverage because they will either become uninsured due to rising costs, or will be enrolled in the cheaper plans that don’t provide key health benefits.
Nationally, premiums could rise as much as 16.4 percent, with a total of 2.5 million people losing comprehensive health coverage.
“Health care advocates warned President Trump over and over about the devastating economic toll his sabotage would take on American families,” Woodhouse continued, “and now we have the numbers to prove it. This report shows that Republican sabotage is set not only to spike premiums, but also to drive millions of Americans off real coverage, leaving them underinsured or uninsured, meanwhile increasing federal spending by billions.”
In addition to supporting the repeal of the individual mandate, Poliquin also voted to repeal the ACA completely, which would have driven premiums and losses in coverage much higher. Unlike Collins, he hasn’t publicly criticized Trump’s executive actions to undermine health insurance markets.
Woodhouse noted that although “much of the damage is done, Trump and his Republican allies in Congress still have time to work with Democrats on a bipartisan stabilization bill to moderate these premium spikes, but that window of time is closing quickly as insurance companies start to lock in premiums for the fall.”
Photo via Rep. Poliquin official website.
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