Patient groups representing families and people with chronic or mental illnesses are suing the Trump administration for allowing health insurers to offer short-term plans that provide coverage for limited benefits as an alternative to Obamacare plans.
The lawsuit was filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, becoming the latest legal case to push back against the Trump administration’s actions on Obamacare. It alleges that the Trump administration has threatened access to medical care for people with chronic pre-existing conditions conditions, such as HIV/AIDS, cancer, and mental illness.
The Trump administration last month upended a rule implemented late in former President Barack Obama’s second term that limited short-term plans to only three months. Under the latest regulations, states are allowed to sell short-term plans for up to three years.
The plans are not obligated to cover the full range of medical care that Obamacare plans are, and can exclude coverage for maternity care, mental health, or chronic illnesses, and are not obligated to cover people with pre-existing illnesses such as cancer or diabetes.
The lawsuit argues that Obamacare, formally known as the Affordable Care Act, was intended to end such practices. It also says that allowing these plans for up to three years does not follow the definition of “short-term plans.”
Plaintiffs say in the lawsuit that the rule is “arbitrary and capricious in light of the significant adverse effects it will have on the health insurance market and the certainty that it will harm individuals in need of health insurance.”
It also states that it will “inflict serious harm on insurers and the health insurance marketplaces established by the ACA, making it much more expensive for anyone to purchase health insurance with all of the ACA’s protections and covering all of the essential health benefits mandated by the ACA.”
Critics have referred to the plans as “junk insurance” that will destabilize the Obamacare markets, but the Trump administration argues that the plans offer an option to people who cannot afford Obamacare plans and would otherwise choose to go uninsured.
The plaintiffs in the latest case include the National Partnership for Women and Families; the National Alliance on Mental Illness, AIDS United; the Association for Community Affiliated Plans; Mental Health America; the American Psychiatric Association; and Little Lobbyists, an organization that advocates for families of children with serious health issues.
Other cases on Obamacare push back on the Trump administration’s regulations allowing small businesses to band together to provide health insurance, and competing lawsuits over whether the law should be struck down because Congress zeroed out Obamacare’s fine for going uninsured beginning in 2019.
