Reforms implemented during the last administration have been rolled back. Action Alert!
President Biden has signed an executive order rolling back a Trump administration order that expanded access to association health plans, short term health plans, and Health Reimbursement Accounts (HRAs). These reforms expanded options to health plans that are free from many Obamacare restrictions, and we have to fight to win them back.
The idea behind association health plans is that small businesses and the self-employed with a common profession or interest, or those who share the same geographic location, can band together and be counted as a “large-group” (equivalent to an employer) for health insurance purposes. The Trump order allowed association health plans to operate as an independent market, separate from the Obamacare exchanges, allowing more leeway to adjust to consumer preferences.
Health Reimbursement Accounts (HRAs) were also expanded to allow employers to give tax-free money to employees to buy their own insurance. With regard to short-term insurance, the Trump order resulted in a rule that amended the definition of short-term health plans, lengthening the maximum period of short-term insurance from three to twelve months. Again, short-term health plans do not have to adhere to many Obamacare regulations, and presented a cheaper health insurance option for many Americans.
Late last year, we reported that a number of these and other healthcare reforms were in danger of being rolled back, and as we feared, they now have been. We must fight for them to be reinstated permanently through legislation.
All of this takes place in the context of a crony medical system in which the government is gagging doctors for talking about supplement benefits, attacking homeopathic medicine, and on the verge of banning estriol. Help us fight for real healthcare reform.
Action Alert! Write to Congress and tell them to cement recent gains in healthcare reform. Please send your message immediately. By sending this message, you will also be supporting our petition to ungag doctors so that they can share with patients the benefits of supplements and natural treatments for COVID.
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