'Bare bones' insurance policies really only work for people who are healthy [View all]

[DonViejo]

By Lenny Bernstein and Paige Winfield Cunningham July 15 at 4:29 PM

Before the Affordable Care Act, insurance companies could offer any combination of benefits in most states and legally call them a health insurance policy. A huge deductible? Coverage for only one night of hospitalization? Nothing for maternity care, mental health or medication?

If consumers were willing to buy such “bare bones” plans — and some people did, usually at very low prices — those policies were considered health insurance coverage.

“If they sold you a policy that covered [only] a toothbrush, that qualified,” said Karen Pollitz, senior fellow at the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The ACA did away with that, mainly by requiring that all health plans on the individual and small-group market include certain “essential benefits” for everyone: prescription drugs, lab services, even maternity care, to name a few.

Now Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R) wants to again allow insurers to sell whatever bare-bones coverage they desire and consumers to purchase it. To qualify, insurers would just have to offer one plan that complies with the ACA’s comprehensive benefits standard.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/bare-bones-insurance-policies-really-only-work-for-people-who-are-healthy/2017/07/15/4f8e9e7c-68b0-11e7-9928-22d00a47778f_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_barebones443pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.09054eff6872