Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Tuesday that Idaho officials have yet to ask him about their plans to overhaul Obamacare, a step that that is normally expected when a state is looking to deviate from the federal law.
“I personally am not aware of other states who have been talking about that, and I certainly have not had any interactions with Idaho myself,” Azar said of the state’s proposal to flout rules in Obamacare.
Azar, who started his role Jan. 29, added that he did not know whether state officials had contacted other federal officials about their proposal.
Idaho officials have outlined a plan to offer health insurance policies that do not abide by Obamacare’s rules. Under the proposal, insurers could sell policies that allow certain customers to be charged more based on a preexisting illness like diabetes if they did not have coverage the previous year. It also wouldn’t obligate coverage for children’s vision or dental care, and would obligate only one plan offer maternity coverage, rather than all plans, as Obamacare stipulates.
The proposal has not been submitted to HHS for review, as would typically be expected under a waiver that Obamacare allows. Congressional Democrats told Azar during budget hearings last week that they did not think the state would seek permission, and asked him to detail how the administration would intervene.
Azar told reporters that he hadn’t yet deliberated on what actions, if any, the agency would take.
“I’m not in a position to rule on something that I’ve seen a media report about,” he said. “Let’s see where the state of Idaho ends up, and then, I can work with the administrator of CMS. I just don’t believe in premature opinions on complex, important topics or serious weighty matters. But at the right time, I’m sure we will have views.”
He noted that the administration has proposed allowing people to purchase short-term plans for a year, which are less expensive and do not abide by all of Obamacare’s rules, and said he hoped that states like Idaho would consider that an avenue to offer their residents less expensive coverage.
