Democrats release report on short-term, limited duration health plans

Democratic leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee today released findings from their investigation of 14 companies that sell or help consumers sign up for short-term, limited duration health plans.

Among other findings, they said all eight plans they investigated deny claims for pre-existing conditions; that most of them “systematically exclude coverage for most major medical conditions resulting from pre-existing conditions”; and that the average broker commission for the plans they investigated was 23% compared with 2% for Affordable Care Act-compliant plans in 2018.

They also said that less than half of the premium dollars collected from consumers are spent on medical care, unlike ACA-compliant individual market plans, which are required to spend at least 80% of premium dollars on health care; and that enrollment in the plans rose 27% in 2019 to about 3 million consumers.

In addition, they said consumers who purchase this type of health plan are more likely to have substantial out-of-pocket medical costs due to the lack of coverage provided by these companies.