Iowa’s governor is expected to sign a bill that would allow insurers to bypass Obamacare consumer protections to sell cheaper plans.
The state Senate approved the legislation on Tuesday that exempts certain health plans from the law’s mandates, according to the Des Moines Register. The legislation now heads to Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds, who is expected to sign it.
The legislation combines two proposals. One proposal would let the Iowa Farm Bureau and Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield to sell health plans to its own members that don’t follow Obamacare insurer mandates, the newspaper said.
These mandates include covering essential health benefits like maternity care or hospitalization and preventing insurers from charging people with pre-existing illnesses more money.
Iowa’s bill said the plans aren’t considered health insurance and can’t be regulated like insurance, the Register said.
But it remains unclear whether the Trump administration would allow Iowa to do this.
Idaho applied for a federal waiver to let insurers sell plans that don’t comply with the law’s mandates on Obamacare’s insurance exchanges. However, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services turned down the waiver because it violated the law.
CMS did not immediately return a request for comment on the Iowa legislation.
Another proposal that is part of the Iowa bill would build on a regulation that the Trump administration released earlier this year. The bill would expand access to association health plans that don’t follow Obamcare’s mandates.
The Trump administration released a proposed regulation earlier this year seeking to expand access to such plans, making it easier for smaller employers and individuals to band together to join an association plan.
Iowa’s Obamacare insurer exchange, which is on the individual market that is used by people who don’t have insurance through work, has been hit hard by major defections from insurers due to financial instability.
Iowa’s exchange only had one insurer for 2018, Medica, which asked for a rate hike of 57 percent.
Wellmark agreed to offer Obamacare exchange coverage in 2019 after leaving the exchange in the 2018 coverage year.
