Manatt’s Joel Ario, a managing director with Manatt Health, was interviewed by Law360 for an article examining how the Trump administration’s proposed rule on short-term, limited duration insurance plans could impact residents in certain states.
According to the publication, the action’s rule would allow these insurance plans to be sold for 12-month coverage periods as opposed to the current limit of three months. Short-term policies can be appealing to healthy consumers and, as such, could harm Affordable Care Act marketplaces; the rule projects that between 100,000 and 200,000 consumers would shift away from ACA plans as a result.
“I would think it could be more than that,” said Ario.
Ultimately, states will retain the power to restrict short-term policies regardless of what happens during the 60-day public comment period.
“States do have the full freedom to ban these,” explained Ario. “Once you ban underwriting, this kind of policy just doesn’t make sense for carriers in the marketplace.”