Following up on the Affordable Care Act under Trump
The latest attempt by Trump to sabotage the gains made under the Affordable Care Act: short-term, “junk” insurance options. As someone who worked with President Obama to pass the ACA, it is incredibly disheartening to see the Trump administration bring back and push these junk plans on to unsuspecting victims. These “options” provide inadequate coverage – attracting customers with low premiums, but skimpy benefits. And these policies “can reject people with preexisting illnesses or limit their coverage, set annual and lifetime caps on benefits, and cover few prescription drugs. Most exclude benefits for maternity care, preventive care, mental health services or substance abuse treatment.” Should someone covered by these meager plans suffer a health crisis, they will be crushed by high deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses.
I’m glad to see the State Senate and State Assembly moving to ban these policies with SB 910 – a bill that I wholeheartedly support.
The ACA is not a perfect law – but it moved the needle considerably on health care. Over 20 million people gained health insurance coverage because of it, and bankruptcies caused by medical expenses plummeted. Over 5 million Californians gained coverage under the ACA. We must continue to do all we can to ensure they keep their coverage — by pushing back against all efforts by the Trump administration to undermine our exchange, MediCal expansion, and those benefitting from subsidies. California should continue to lead the way on expanding health insurance coverage, moving us toward the eventual goal of a universal, single-payer system.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-trump-short-term-health-plans-20180802-story.html
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Buffy Wicks for Assembly 2024. FPPC #1456909