President Joe Biden called short-term limited duration insurance plans "junk" during the 2020 campaign, but his administration has not taken action to get rid of them, the Washington Post reported April 14.
Five things to know:
1. The short-term plans don't have to cover preexisting conditions and are allowed to bypass the ACA's requirement to cover such services as maternity care and mental health treatment, according to the report.
2. The Obama administration imposed a three-month limit on the short-term plans, but the Trump administration changed the rules to allow people to stay on the plans for a year and renew coverage for up to three years, according to the Post.
3. HHS said it plans to issue a proposal by August that would roll back the limit to three months, according to the report.
4. Forty Senate Democrats sent a letter to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra in February urging him to immediately restore the three-month limit. They said the short-term plans undermine the integrity of the ACA and put those with preexisting conditions at risk.
5. Several experts told the Post it is unclear how many people are enrolled in the short-term plans. A House Energy and Commerce Committee Democratic staff report from 2020 estimated at least 3 million people were enrolled in the plans in 2019.