By Allison Bell | September 24, 2020 at 11:23 PM
Here are 5 things a financial professional
should know about the Trump administration's new America First Healthcare Plan
executive order and order unveiling event...
1. The administration used the event and the
order to highlight earlier efforts, such as the expanded health reimbursement
arrangement program, and a $35 monthly cap on insulin costs for 2021 Medicare
enrollees.
2. The president said at the order unveiling
event that seniors will soon get $200 payment cards from the government. He
said recipients can use the cards to pay for prescription drugs.
3. The president stated in the executive order
that, "It has been and will continue to be the policy of the United States
to... ensure that Americans with pre-existing conditions can obtain the
insurance of their choice at affordable rates."
4. The president told the HHS secretary in the
executive order to work with Congress to develop a surprising billing
legislative solution. If a solution does not materialize by Dec. 31, the HHS
secretary "shall take administrative action to prevent" surprise
billing, according to the order.
5. The administration plans to use Medicare's
Hospital Compare quality website to publish information about matters such as
whether a hospital posts prices online, and how often a hospital uses
aggressive bill collection practices, according to the executive order.
.
President Donald Trump today signed an executive order that
could eventually lead to changes in hospital price disclosure, billing and bill
collection practices.
The America First Healthcare Plan executive order also
discusses the policy of the United States on health coverage access for
Americans with pre-existing conditions.
The order does not include any provisions that seem likely to
lead to big changes in Medicare coverage or commercial health coverage.
Resources
·
A
copy of the new executive order is available here.
·
A
video of the president’s remarks is available here.
·
An
article about an earlier Trump administration health cost executive order
is available here.
The president traveled to Charlotte, North Carolina, to
introduce the executive order. The White House and news organizations streamed
the event live on the web.
The Remarks
The audience at the Charlotte event included Seema Verma, who is
the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; Alex Azar
II, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS);
and Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., a senator who has actively courted insurance
agent support for his proposals to change or replace the current Affordable
Care Act framework for health insurance.
Trump told the crowd that he would be laying out a vision for a
“health care system that puts patients first, families first, and, perhaps,
most importantly for all of us, America, first.”
Trump said that more than 130 Democrats in Congress have
endorsed single-payer health care legislation that would outlaw private health
plans.
“We’re standing up for our people,” Trump said. “We’re stopping
the radical socialists and communists.”
The Supreme Court Case
Trump talked briefly about California v. Texas, an Affordable
Care Act constitutionality case that has been taken up by the U.S. Supreme
Court.
“Obamacare is no longer Obamacare, because we worked on it and
manage it very well,” Trump said. “We stabilized it, got premiums down very
substantially… But it’s still unacceptable to me, because it’s too expensive
and doesn’t really do the job as well as we could have.”
Trump said he hopes the Supreme Court will help “end
this ill-conceived plan.”
“If we win, we will have a better and less expensive plan
that will always protect individuals with pre-existing conditions,” Trump said.
“If we lose, what we have is better than the original version of Obamacare, by
far. Much better. Much better.”
The Executive Order
In the past, the Trump administration has interpreted the text
of the Affordable Care Act in ways that have led it to back away from funding
some ACA subsidies and programs, but it has complied with the letter of the
law.
The administration has used past executive orders to try to make
it easier for individuals to use short-term health insurance and health
reimbursement arrangements (HRAs), and for employers to offer HRAs and
association health plans.
In the new executive order, Trump calls for HHS to use its own
hospital quality website and, possibly, administrative actions to push
hospitals to provide clear, complete price information; avoid harsh bill
collection tactics; and end the practice of sending out “surprise bills,” or
bills for out-of-network care sent to patients who could not choose their
hospitals, due to medical emergencies, or who received care from out-of-network
health care professionals in in-network hospitals.
The order does not appear to eliminate or add any provisions
that would directly affect 2021 health coverage.
The annual enrollment period for Medicare plans for 2021 starts
Oct. 15.
In much of the country, the open enrollment period for
individual major medical coverage for 2021 starts Nov. 1.
The executive order could lead to HHS developing surprise
billing regulations or guidance in early 2021, and the order could lead to
hospital price disclosure and billing practices information showing up on
Medicare’s Hospital Compare website
in late 2021.
The Future
Earlier news reports suggested that Trump wants to send Medicare
recipients cash they can use to pay for drugs.
Trump said he does intend to do that.
“Under my plan, beneficiaries will soon receive a card in the
mail containing $200 that they can use to help pay for prescription drugs,”
Trump said. “Nobody’s seen this before. These cards are incredible. The cards
will be mailed out in coming weeks. i will always take care of our wonderful
senior citizens.”
Trump said the administration is also working on a proposal for
encouraging companies to make medical supplies in the United States.
“We will permanently bring our medical supply chains back home,”
Trump said. “We will produce our medical supplies, pharmaceuticals and
treatments right here in North Carolina.”
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