President Trump on Friday touted health insurance plans that will be sold outside of Obamacare, saying they had “just opened” though they won’t be available for over a month.
“Through associated health plans we are giving Americans the ability — just opened — millions people are going to be signing up,” he said as part of a speech highlighting the 4.1 growth in GDP and touting his economic policies. “Millions and millions. Much better and more affordable healthcare, including bidding across state lines.”
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“All of the insurance companies are going wild,” he continued. “They want to get it. You can have great healthcare at a much lower price. It will cost the United States nothing.”
The plans won’t be available for purchase until Sept. 1, and it’s not yet clear how many people will buy them or whether the regulations set by the Trump administration will be too limited to encourage insurers to use them. The Congressional Budget Office projected 6 million would enroll.
The Trump administration announced in June that it would be allowing the sales of the plans, which will allow small businesses and individual workers to band together to provide medical coverage that will be less expensive than Obamacare plans. Conservatives have touted the provision as “allowing people to buy coverage across state lines” because the plans could go to people who live in different states.
Critics are concerned that the plans will provide inadequate protections to consumers and will deplete participation in the Obamacare exchanges, causing the price of premiums to continue to rise.
Trump has made similar comments about association health plans before.
“I hear it’s like record business that they’re doing,” Trump said Thursday in Iowa. “We just opened about two months ago and I’m hearing that the numbers are incredible — the numbers of people getting really, really good healthcare instead of Obamacare, which is a disaster.”
Trump on Friday noted that he had signed a bill into law to undo the fine for going uninsured, known as the “individual mandate.” His administration had gotten rid of the “cruel” mandate, he sad.
“That’s where you pay a lot of money for the privilege of not having to buy bad healthcare and pay for it,” he said. “It’s gone. Nobody thought we could get rid of it. That was the most unpopular provision by far, probably on anything but certainly in Obamacare. And Obamacare is now on its last legs, fortunately.”
Under the tax law, the fine flatten to zero until 2019, but the Trump administration allowed certain other exemptions beginning this year, adding to a list of exemptions that had been created under the Obama administration. The penalty otherwise was $695 a person or 2.5 percent of income, whichever is higher.
The Trump administration is also expected to announce in the coming weeks its rule for allowing people to purchase short-term health insurance plans, which were shortened to three months toward the end of former President Barack Obama’s second term. The Trump administration is expected to re-extend the plans to allow them to be sold for a year. For people who don’t receive subsidies, the monthly premiums are less expensive than Obamacare plans, but they also offer fewer benefits and do not guarantee coverage to people with pre-existing illnesses such as cancer or diabetes.
Trump previewed the announcement Friday, saying the plans would be “much less expensive healthcare at a much lower price.”
“We are finally taking care of our people,” he said.
