Eliminating Essential Health Benefits Will Shift Financial Risk Back to Consumers
<p>Prior to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), one of five people who bought their own health plans had no prescription drug coverage, and only 12 states required pregnancy-related services to be covered by individual-market plans. </p><p>In a new <em>To the Point</em> post, Georgetown University’s Dania Palanker, JoAnn Volk, and Justin Giovannelli write that while the recently released House replacement bill retains the ACA’s benefit requirements for private health insurance, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price has said the administration and Congress will make additional changes to remove the health law’s coverage standards.</p>
<p>Without such protections, “many consumers with illness or injury will once again bear the financial risk under policies that purport to provide full coverage but in reality offer much less,” the authors say.
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