How Trump gave insurance companies free rein to sell bad health plans
In October 2018, Ashley Lawley saw a chiropractor in her home state of Alabama. During that visit, the chiropractor examined a suspicious lump on her neck and advised her to consult a surgeon about having it removed.
But she needed to make sure her insurance covered her. She called a health insurance broker, one she had previously spoken with on the phone. The broker — given the alias “Justin” in a class-action lawsuit two years later — told her she’d need to purchase a new major medical plan. He allegedly assured her that her lump would not be considered a preexisting condition and that any procedure would be covered.
She bought the plan, saw a doctor, and scheduled her surgery, but not before confirming again with her insurance agent that she would need to pay only $500 for the procedure. The lump was removed, and Lawley paid her copay.
Then the bills started coming. She received a form from her insurer telling her that no benefits would be paid. It was only then she learned she had been sold a short-term health insurance plan, not the major medical insurance that she believed it to be. She faced $20,000 in unpaid medical bills.
Lawley’s story isn’t unique. In a lawsuit filed on behalf of Lawley and other patients in May 2020, her insurer and its affiliates were accused of selling policies that “left patients with little or no insurance for comprehensive care, excluding coverage for preexisting conditions and prescription drugs and imposing very low dollar limits on other services.”
These policies were the kind of skimpy, low-grade plans that Obamacare had sought to marginalize, if not outright eliminate. And for a time, the law did just that.
Then Donald Trump became president.
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https://www.vox.com/2020/6/30/21275498/trump-obamacare-repeal-short-term-health-care-insurance-scam
