On Friday, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic with rising infections and a climbing death toll, the Trump administration will be arguing before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that its dramatic and illegal expansion of short-term, limited-duration “junk” health insurance plans should continue. The administration has been aggressively promoting these as an alternative to quality, comprehensive Affordable Care Act-compliant insurance plans.
This is happening while the Supreme Court is planning this year to take up the Trump-supported challenge by Republican states to completely overturn the ACA. While our nation's health system is in a massive crisis, the administration is continuing on with legal challenges that could turn the entire thing upside down.
The Association for Community Affiliated Plans (ACAP), a national trade association which represents not-for-profit Safety Net Health Plans, filed a brief with the D.C. Circuit in the challenge against the short-term plan resolution. ACAP's CEO Margaret Murray called the rule "crazy town bananapants," pointing out the now well-publicized case last month of a Florida man with one of these plans who traveled to China and was having flu-like symptoms when he got back.
Murray recounted the story, saying he "was left with a bill for thousands of dollars after he went to get tested for coronavirus—and when it turned out he had the flu, his junk plan demanded three years' worth of medical records to prove that the flu wasn't caused by a pre-existing condition."
Plenty of other people with these junk plans are facing surprise bills in the hundreds of thousands, like David and Marisia Diaz, who were billed nearly $250,000 after his heart attack despite having a plan they thought was a comprehensive, ACA-compliant insurance plan. It wasn't. It was a junk plan deceptively marketed to them as a comprehensive plan. They are far from the only ones, including a woman who had to have an emergency hysterectomy that was denied coverage because she had periods up until the time of surgery. Her menstrual cycles were a pre-existing condition!
"This is a largely unregulated insurance product that uses fine print and bureaucracy to keep premium as profit and out of the hands of providers that deliver needed medical services," Murray said last month. "Unfortunately, these plans have been encouraged to proliferate — and it’s entirely possible that they may keep people from seeking needed medical attention and contribute to the spread of the coronavirus here in the U.S." That was last month. The crisis is even more dire now.
If the administration had an ounce of responsibility, it would withdraw from these cases, and it would end them.