Real Health Reform: The Trump administration approved an expansion of a low-cost insurance option for those who can't afford ObamaCare's sky-high premiums. Democrats are up in arms. Why? Because they say it will undermine the Affordable Care Act. Go figure.
 
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On Wednesday, the Department of Health and Human Services issued rules allowing people to buy "short term" insurance policies that last 12 months. These short-term plans don't have to comply with ObamaCare's massive array of rate regulations. They can charge the sick more than the healthy, and can deny coverage for pre-existing conditions. They also don't have to comply with ObamaCare's costly benefit mandates.
But those who buy these plans will pay far lower premiums, will often have access to a much wider network or providers, and can renew the plans for three years without having their rates change because of health issues that crop up after initially enrolling.
For millions of Americans who've been priced out of insurance because of ObamaCare, this opens the door to their getting some form of affordable health insurance. Obama tried to kill off the short-term insurance market entirely by limiting the plans to just three months.
As Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar explained: "These plans aren't for everyone, but they can provide a much more affordable option for millions of the forgotten men and women left out by the current system."
Or as HealthPocket and Agile Health Insurance CEO Bruce Telkamp put it, "one-year short-term plans will bring immediate relief to consumers needing low premiums and unrestricted provider network coverage so they will not join the ranks of the uninsured."
To Democrats, however, this choice shouldn't be available at all. They say that letting people buy skimpy short-term plans will result in fewer people buying ObamaCare-approved insurance. That, they say, will lead to higher premiums for ObamaCare plans.
This is poppycock. ObamaCare premiums have been spiraling upward from the get-go, even after Obama tried to kill the short-term market.
What's more, this year's premium increases are coming in lower than many expected, and in some cases much lower than in previous years.
The leftist Center for American Progress predicted that 2019 premiums for a "benchmark" ObamaCare plan in Colorado would be 27% higher than 2018 because of Trump's "sabotage" efforts. But rate requests from insurers have averaged under 6%, according to the state insurance commissioner, who called it the "smallest increase in years."
CAP claimed premiums would shoot up 20% in Michigan because of ObamaCare "sabotage." The average rate increase requested by insurers in that state for 2019: 1.4%. Compare that with last year's increase — before any "sabotage" took place — of 26.8%. And the year before that — when Obama was still president — the average hike in ObamaCare premiums in Michigan was 16.7%.
The truth — which Democrats will never admit — is that ObamaCare was failing long before President Donald Trump took the keys to the White House. It was failing because it was a horribly designed, centrally planned health care system built on regulations that had already failed in various states that previously experimented with them.
Until Congress can figure out a broader solution to the mess ObamaCare created, providing immediate relief to families hurt by ObamaCare is the right, and humane, thing to do.