WASHINGTON, Oct. 12, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The
White House's executive order today seeking to allow for more
"Association Health Plans" could turn the clock back to days when
patients faced unlimited medical bills even when they played by the
rules, the nonprofit nonpartisan group Consumer Watchdog said
today.
Consumer Watchdog fought off previous proposals that allowed for
the sale of more such policies that promise lower costs but deliver
junk health insurance plans that can leave patients with hundreds
of thousands of dollars in medical bills.
The nonprofit group worked with patients who were duped into
buying such cheap plans, subsequently banned by Obamacare, that
left them near bankruptcy. Federal legislation by Senator
Mike Enzi to create such a market
beyond the reach of state laws was rejected earlier in the
century.
Consumer Watchdog released this video about Trump's plan and one
patient, Dana Christensen, who faced
$450,000 in medical bills despite
being insured by a junk "association health plan":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNFnjZwXfeE
"Patients in America shouldn't have the clock turned back to the
dark days of junk health insurance where the fine print in policies
left unsuspecting policyholders facing bankruptcy," said
Jamie Court, president of Consumer
Watchdog. "Association health plans have been plagued by
fraud and unconscionable terms because they were not subject to the
out of pocket maximum limits enacted under Obamacare. These junk
health plan plans typically preyed on small businesses and
individuals. The White House should not reinstitute policies
that put families in the path of financial ruin because they bought
policies that were not worth the paper they were printed on."
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SOURCE Consumer Watchdog