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(33,309 posts) Thu Apr 5, 2018, 03:40 AM Apr 2018

Iowas found a new, likely legal way to ignore Obamacare

By Sarah Kliff 4, 2018

Iowa is moving forward with a controversial new plan to exempt certain health plans from Obamacare regulations.

Two days ago, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a bill that allows certain health plans to discriminate against those with preexisting conditions and exclude certain benefits, anything from prenatal care to prescription drugs.

It does this in a way that most experts think is perfectly legal — by making clear in new legislative language that these products are not health insurance. The insurance department in Iowa won’t regulate these plans as health plans. Therefore, they don’t have to play by Obamacare rules.

So while Idaho had its plan for expanding non-Obamacare plans rebuffed by the federal government, Iowa seems to be pursuing a more legal path to a similar outcome. It’s one that other conservative states are likely to notice and possibly replicate.

Under the Affordable Care Act, health insurers aren’t allowed to screen enrollees for certain health conditions. They’re barred from rejecting patients who they expect will have especially high costs.

Iowa’s new plan creates a carve-out for the Iowa Farm Bureau, a long-standing agricultural association that has historically served the state’s farming communities. It says organizations like this one can offer something called a “health benefit plan” that is explicitly not health insurance. So it can do things like offer coverage for doctor visits — but it won’t have to abide by Obamacare insurance rules.

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https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/4/4/17199858/iowa-legal-way-ignore-obamacare