Newly elected Iowa Democrat Cindy Axne said Thursday that her first priority when her party assumes control of the House next year will be to stop the Trump administration from expanding short-term health plans, which are less-expensive alternatives to Obamacare that don’t cover pre-existing conditions.
Axne’s comments, made during a call with the pro-Obamacare group Protect Our Care, offer a preview of the likely Democratic agenda. Democrats ran on healthcare and protecting pre-existing conditions, an issue that helped propel candidates such as Axne to Congress.
“The first thing that we need to do is stop Republican attacks on pre-existing conditions and stop any movement towards extending these short-term plans,” Axne said on the call. “I support legislation to overturn Trump’s expansion of these plans that don’t cover pre-existing conditions.”
The administration issued a regulation earlier this year that expands the duration of short-term plans from 90 days to nearly 12 months, making them a viable alternative for more people. The plans are cheaper than plans sold on Obamacare’s insurance exchanges because, unlike Obamacare-compliant plans, they do not have to cover people with pre-existing conditions and they do not have to offer a standard set of benefits.
Insurers started selling the expanded short-term plans at the beginning of October.
Democrats have long decried the plans as “junk insurance” that will destabilize Obamacare’s exchanges because younger and healthier people will flee the exchanges for the cheaper options. This means that costs will go up for the sicker people that remain on the exchanges that need more comprehensive coverage because there are no healthy people to balance out the risk pool.
The Trump administration has responded that the plans act as an “escape hatch” for people who earn too much to get Obamacare’s income-based tax subsidies and want to avoid the pain of paying the exchanges’ high premiums.
Axne, who narrowly defeated incumbent Republican David Young on Tuesday, added there should also be a discussion about whether to add a public option for Obamacare. A public option, which is a government-run insurance option that offers plans on the exchanges, was considered during the debate on Obamacare back in 2009 but it was jettisoned because of insufficient support from Democrats.
However, both pursuits would be a difficult sell in the Senate, where Republicans have expanded their majority.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., secured a vote in the Senate on a resolution in October that would end the short-term plan expansion, but it failed 50-50.
