Here’s something that’s been brewing for a while, but is only now starting to get some attention. The Trumpcare bill that passed the House allows states to waive the ten essential benefits mandated by Obamacare. But this doesn’t just affect individual insurance purchased on the exchanges. It also affects employer insurance:
Under the House bill, large employers could choose the benefit requirements from any state—including those that are allowed to lower their benchmarks under a waiver, health analysts said. By choosing a waiver state, employers looking to lower their costs could impose lifetime limits and eliminate the out-of-pocket cost cap from their plans under the GOP legislation.
A company wouldn’t have to do business in a state to choose that state’s benefits level, analysts said. The company could just choose a state to match no matter where it is based.
….A House GOP spokesman [said] the bill didn’t intend to touch employer plans and any unintended consequences could be addressed by Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price.
Please raise your hand if you trust Tom Price to take care of this little boo-boo after the fact. Anyone?
There’s going to be more stuff like this. Democrats spent months writing the legislative language for Obamacare, and even so there were mistakes and unintended side effects. House Republicans spent a few days on their bill. What are the odds that they have any idea what it actually does?
We have a new comment system! We are now using Coral, from Vox Media, for comments on all new articles. We'd love your feedback.