(TRNS) - A Republican proposal to allow Americans with individual health insurance outside of the Obamacare marketplace to keep their plans - even if they don't meet new requirements established by the healthcare law - would cause healthcare costs to soar, according to a new report released today by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
From the group's report:
By encouraging healthier people to remain in individual-market plans outside the new insurance marketplaces (also known as exchanges), the bill would make the pool of people enrolled in plans offered through the marketplaces sicker, on average, than under current law. That would raise marketplace premiums for coverage in 2015 and beyond (and possibly even for 2014), and could trigger sticker shock when the premiums for 2015 are announced next October. The higher premiums would, in turn, threaten the long-term viability of the marketplaces, potentially placing coverage at risk for millions of uninsured people who stand to gain coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
The report also argues that the GOP measure would hinder the ACA's efforts at preventing insurers from discriminating against customers with certain conditions.
The Upton bill would also seriously damage the ACA's major insurance-market reforms that take effect in 2014 by allowing the individual insurance market outside the marketplaces to continue virtually unchanged. For example, by grandfathering a swath of non-ACA-compliant plans, the bill would allow insurers to continue to offer individual-market health plans that don't include essential health benefits. Plans could continue to have coverage gaps such as lack of prescription drugs, maternity care, and mental health and substance abuse treatment, as they often do now. These plans also wouldn't have to cover preventive services at no cost to enrollees. And enrollees could continue facing high out-of-pocket charges even for covered benefits because the plans would not have to comply with the ACA caps on annual out-of-pocket costs.
House Republican leaders, however, say that the bill is necessary to protect Americans against losing their current coverage and being forced to pay more for a policy offered on healthcare.gov or one of the 14 state-run exchanges.
'The legislation that we're bringing forward this week...will allow those Americans to keep the plans that they've been promised, it's as simple as that,' said Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers. 'People all across this country are being harmed by this law and it's time that we listen to the American people and take action that's going to help them...make sure that they do have affordable, quality healthcare.'
The House is scheduled to vote on Rep. Upton's bill Friday. It should be noted that the legislation does not contain any mandates to insurance companies. Over in the Senate, however, Mary Landrieu (D-La.) is preparing a bill that would force insurers to continue offering plans that don't meet the Affordable Care Act's new standards.
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