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

Jun 25, 2020 - 03:12 PM
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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.

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