Yesterday, Jennifer Haberkorn of Politico reported on the Trump Administration’s plan to “improve the individual and small group markets most harmed by Obamacare.” The plan is in a memo obtained by Senator Bob Casey and shared with Politico. It’s a 10-point plan encompassing the following areas, though details are lacking to such an extent that I don’t fully understand what some are getting at:
- Special enrollment periods (require verification of eligibility)
- Grace periods (tighten rules about paying premiums)
- Open enrollment periods (shorten them)
- Network adequacy (return authority of it to states)
- Essential health benefits (allow states more flexibility)
- Section 1332 waivers (expedite them)
- Third party payment of premiums (steering patients to private coverage instead public coverage is a no-no)
- Permit lower cost direct enrollment pathways (more flexibility to states)
- Benefit design flexibility (more flexibility to states)
- Encourage skinny exchanges (more innovation)
According to the Politico piece, seven of these have already been implemented: 1, 3, 4, 5, 9 are among those seven, I think (though I’m confused about how 5 and 9 differ). The piece then says 4.5 of these had not been implemented, but had been proposed at the time the memo was written. Numbers 7 and 10 are among those not implemented, I think. Anyway, 7 + 4.5 makes 11.5 proposals out of 10, so I’m confused.
