From the WSJ:
As long as companies offer at least one plan that complies with the law’s requirements, they are free to keep offering ones that don’t.
That has enabled companies to find ways to comply with the law while minimizing increases in their health-care costs. The result has been an increase in lean insurance offerings such as “fixed-indemnity” plans.
David I. Buckman, AlliedBarton’s general counsel said: “It is a plan that we understand, and our employees understand. We believe it’s what a lot of our employees want.”
Such plans, which might cost an employee just $80 a month in premiums, generally pay a set amount for specific medical services—$70 for a doctor’s visit, for example, or $20 for a prescription—without regard to the underlying cost. They limit the amount of payments or care available in a year, and can exclude entire areas of coverage, such as mental-health care. When catastrophic injury or illness strikes, they often pay little.
There are days I wonder why we even bothered to pass the ACA. I also wonder why anyone believes any of the “horror stories” like companies might have to cancel people’s beloved crappy insurance. Apparently, they don’t.
