1 00:00:02,033 --> 00:00:05,100 JUDY WOODRUFF: Today, the Trump administration took another step toward eliminating Obamacare 2 00:00:05,100 --> 00:00:10,100 by changing rules that will allow consumers to buy cheaper, shorter-term health insurance. 3 00:00:12,066 --> 00:00:15,633 But, as Lisa Desjardins explains, there are concerns that this move, set to take place 4 00:00:15,633 --> 00:00:20,633 this fall, may be harmful for people with health problems and possibly left without 5 00:00:21,500 --> 00:00:23,566 enough health care coverage. 6 00:00:23,566 --> 00:00:27,633 LISA DESJARDINS: The president says there needs to be more affordable insurance options 7 00:00:27,633 --> 00:00:31,033 than what's available through the Obamacare marketplaces now. 8 00:00:31,033 --> 00:00:36,033 The short-term plans will likely offer much lower premiums, but insurers wouldn't have 9 00:00:38,000 --> 00:00:41,366 to cover preexisting conditions or offer the same benefits as required by the Affordable 10 00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:44,000 Care Act. 11 00:00:44,000 --> 00:00:46,400 Currently, people can only use short-term coverage for three months. 12 00:00:46,400 --> 00:00:51,100 But the new rules would allow people to keep those plans for a year and potentially renew 13 00:00:51,100 --> 00:00:53,466 them for a total of three years. 14 00:00:53,466 --> 00:00:56,500 Julie Appleby covers this for Kaiser Health News and joins me now. 15 00:00:56,500 --> 00:00:59,666 Julie Appleby, let me just start off right away. 16 00:00:59,666 --> 00:01:04,100 While the Trump administration says these are good options for people, cheaper, opponents 17 00:01:04,100 --> 00:01:06,633 say they're skimpy and risky. 18 00:01:06,633 --> 00:01:08,066 Just explain what these plans are. 19 00:01:08,066 --> 00:01:10,033 What do they do? 20 00:01:10,033 --> 00:01:12,133 JULIE APPLEBY, Kaiser Health News: Well, these are short-term plans that are meant to be 21 00:01:12,133 --> 00:01:14,866 sort of a stopgap between -- maybe you have lost your job or you're between jobs. 22 00:01:14,866 --> 00:01:15,866 You need some coverage for a little while. 23 00:01:15,866 --> 00:01:17,366 So they're meant to be a stopgap. 24 00:01:17,366 --> 00:01:19,066 They have been around for a long time. 25 00:01:19,066 --> 00:01:23,933 They are, currently, as you mentioned, available only up to 90 days. 26 00:01:23,933 --> 00:01:26,800 So you have to renew them every few months. 27 00:01:26,800 --> 00:01:30,666 The Trump administration is changing the rules on that to make them available for up to a 28 00:01:30,666 --> 00:01:32,733 year. 29 00:01:32,733 --> 00:01:34,266 But what they are, basically, they have some similarities to what we're used to as job-based 30 00:01:34,266 --> 00:01:37,300 insurance, for example, but there are some major differences. 31 00:01:37,300 --> 00:01:39,300 They're less expensive. 32 00:01:39,300 --> 00:01:42,066 And the reason they're less expensive is because they cover a lot less. 33 00:01:42,066 --> 00:01:44,666 They can be choosy about who they pick. 34 00:01:44,666 --> 00:01:47,933 So if you are sick or have some kind of preexisting condition, you might not even be able to buy 35 00:01:47,933 --> 00:01:50,100 one of these plans. 36 00:01:50,100 --> 00:01:52,266 LISA DESJARDINS: I was looking up, for example, what, again, one of these plans might look 37 00:01:52,266 --> 00:01:54,433 like for me or someone like me. 38 00:01:54,433 --> 00:01:56,533 And the deductibles are huge. 39 00:01:56,533 --> 00:02:00,600 You would pay everything up to, say, $10,000, but your premium is much less. 40 00:02:00,600 --> 00:02:01,733 Who would benefit from this? 41 00:02:01,733 --> 00:02:03,700 Who would be the winners of this change? 42 00:02:03,700 --> 00:02:07,633 JULIE APPLEBY: So, the folks that might find these appealing are generally younger and 43 00:02:07,633 --> 00:02:12,500 healthier people, those folks who don't have a preexisting condition, because, remember, 44 00:02:12,500 --> 00:02:14,066 those folks aren't going to be able to buy these. 45 00:02:14,066 --> 00:02:16,066 So that might appeal to them. 46 00:02:16,066 --> 00:02:20,233 And it's also folks who are struggling right now to pay for an Affordable Care Act plan 47 00:02:21,366 --> 00:02:23,366 because they don't get a subsidy. 48 00:02:23,366 --> 00:02:26,033 Remember, the Affordable Care Act provides subsidies to people who earn up to about 400 49 00:02:26,033 --> 00:02:30,000 percent of the poverty level, which is about $48,000 for an individual. 50 00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:33,166 But if you don't get a subsidy, some of the premiums can be very expensive. 51 00:02:33,166 --> 00:02:35,933 So the Trump administration says, we want to offer these plans. 52 00:02:35,933 --> 00:02:37,900 They are going to be lower-cost. 53 00:02:37,900 --> 00:02:41,333 But they do come with this caveat that they cover a lot fewer things, and they may have 54 00:02:41,333 --> 00:02:43,400 very high deductibles. 55 00:02:43,400 --> 00:02:46,733 And the other thing, that these short-term plans don't have to follow a lot of the Affordable 56 00:02:46,733 --> 00:02:48,800 Care Act rules. 57 00:02:48,800 --> 00:02:51,900 So they could have annual or lifetime limits, which are also barred in the Affordable Care 58 00:02:51,900 --> 00:02:52,900 Act plans. 59 00:02:52,900 --> 00:02:54,633 (CROSSTALK) 60 00:02:54,633 --> 00:02:56,700 LISA DESJARDINS: If you get a catastrophic disease, for example. 61 00:02:56,700 --> 00:02:59,233 JULIE APPLEBY: Some of -- some of the patient advocacy groups, many of the patient advocacy 62 00:02:59,233 --> 00:03:03,300 groups are very concerned about these plans, that people who are sick are going to perhaps 63 00:03:03,300 --> 00:03:06,600 buy them or become sick while they have one and realize that they don't cover a lot of 64 00:03:06,600 --> 00:03:08,700 things or that there are these high deductibles. 65 00:03:08,700 --> 00:03:12,266 LISA DESJARDINS: If you hit $500,000 of cancer treatment, you may be on the hook for what's 66 00:03:12,266 --> 00:03:13,266 left, for example. 67 00:03:13,266 --> 00:03:15,300 JULIE APPLEBY: Right. 68 00:03:15,300 --> 00:03:17,566 Some of them may have a limit of $250,000 a year in coverage or $2 million a year in 69 00:03:17,566 --> 00:03:19,600 coverage or that type of thing. 70 00:03:19,600 --> 00:03:23,633 So that's where folks are really going to have to read the fine print on these plans. 71 00:03:25,633 --> 00:03:28,000 The Trump administration in their new rule that came out today said that they are going 72 00:03:28,000 --> 00:03:33,000 to require insurers to put sort of a little box on their plan and say, these plans may 73 00:03:34,800 --> 00:03:36,300 not cover everything, read everything. 74 00:03:36,300 --> 00:03:38,333 It might not cover hospitalization. 75 00:03:38,333 --> 00:03:42,000 It might not cover emergency room care, and to read the plans carefully before you purchase 76 00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:43,000 it. 77 00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:44,533 (CROSSTALK) 78 00:03:44,533 --> 00:03:45,333 LISA DESJARDINS: Risk warning for the -- for your insurance. 79 00:03:45,333 --> 00:03:46,800 JULIE APPLEBY: Right. 80 00:03:46,800 --> 00:03:48,233 LISA DESJARDINS: I want to talk about the scope of this. 81 00:03:48,233 --> 00:03:51,200 This -- let's look at the numbers about short-term plans. 82 00:03:51,200 --> 00:03:56,200 Right now, there are some, it looks like, 122,500 people who use these plans on the 83 00:03:58,100 --> 00:04:00,800 individual market. 84 00:04:00,800 --> 00:04:04,566 The White House has said in the last day that they think this change will change that substantially 85 00:04:06,533 --> 00:04:09,733 to 600,000, almost five times as many, and then, in three years, that will be almost 86 00:04:09,733 --> 00:04:13,033 more than 1.5 million people who use these short-term plans. 87 00:04:13,033 --> 00:04:16,866 That's a huge change for these plans. 88 00:04:16,866 --> 00:04:20,066 But what does that mean in terms of individual markets? 89 00:04:20,066 --> 00:04:22,833 And how is this going to affect the health of Obamacare? 90 00:04:22,833 --> 00:04:27,733 Because, obviously, this is the president trying to go after the Affordable Care Act. 91 00:04:27,733 --> 00:04:30,333 JULIE APPLEBY: There's been a number of estimates on how many people would buy these plans. 92 00:04:30,333 --> 00:04:34,733 And I think until they come out and insurers start offering and we see how many people 93 00:04:34,733 --> 00:04:36,800 sign up for them, it's hard to say. 94 00:04:36,800 --> 00:04:41,000 The government does expect about 600,000 people in the first year, in 2019. 95 00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:44,866 And they think, of those, about 200,000 of them will come from the Affordable Care Act 96 00:04:44,866 --> 00:04:46,266 plan. 97 00:04:46,266 --> 00:04:47,500 These are folks who probably don't get a subsidy. 98 00:04:47,500 --> 00:04:49,500 So they might jump to one of these. 99 00:04:49,500 --> 00:04:53,066 The concern is -- and the government and other estimates have shown that this will raise 100 00:04:53,066 --> 00:04:57,766 premiums for those folks who stay in the Affordable Care Act, because it siphons out probably 101 00:04:57,766 --> 00:04:59,800 the younger and healthier folks. 102 00:04:59,800 --> 00:05:03,733 So, then the premiums may go up in the Affordable Care Act marketplace. 103 00:05:03,733 --> 00:05:07,233 If you're getting a subsidy, your subsidy is also going to increase. 104 00:05:07,233 --> 00:05:10,600 So folks who get a subsidy may not see that much of a difference. 105 00:05:10,600 --> 00:05:14,933 But the very people that are struggling to buy coverage right now, those folks who are 106 00:05:14,933 --> 00:05:17,933 buying it on their own, and they don't get a subsidy, they may see a premium increase 107 00:05:17,933 --> 00:05:19,900 as a result. 108 00:05:19,900 --> 00:05:23,000 And some of them may not be able to buy one of these short-term plans because they have 109 00:05:23,000 --> 00:05:24,966 a preexisting condition. 110 00:05:24,966 --> 00:05:28,200 LISA DESJARDINS: So, while this isn't a huge market itself, it will grow, and it could 111 00:05:28,200 --> 00:05:29,700 have a lot of ripple effects. 112 00:05:29,700 --> 00:05:31,766 JULIE APPLEBY: It could have some ripple effects. 113 00:05:31,766 --> 00:05:33,833 As you mentioned, there's about 14 million people in the plan -- in the Affordable Care 114 00:05:33,833 --> 00:05:38,133 Act now; 200,000 of those leave, but, over time, that could grow up quite a bit. 115 00:05:38,133 --> 00:05:40,700 LISA DESJARDINS: Julie Appleby with Kaiser Health News, thank you very much. 116 00:05:40,700 --> 00:05:41,033 JULIE APPLEBY: Thank you.