Grassley, Ernst Press CMS to Defend Excessive-High quality, Reasonably priced Well being Insurance coverage for 65,000 Iowans

BOONE, IOWA – In a letter to Facilities for Medicare &
Medicaid Providers (CMS) Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, Sens. Chuck
Grassley (R-Iowa) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) requested that CMS rapidly allow
transitional well being plans for Calendar 12 months (CY) 2023 to offer Iowans
predictability and stability of their well being care.

“Over 65,000 hard-working Iowa farmers, small enterprise
homeowners, and their households presently entry high-quality and inexpensive well being
insurance coverage via transitional well being plans. CMS has permitted these plans for
roughly a decade. We request that CMS rapidly allow transitional well being
plans to be offered in CY 2023 to offer Iowans predictability and stability in
their well being care,” the senators wrote.

Transitional well being plans check with insurance coverage protection that
was bought after Obamacare turned regulation in 2010 however earlier than it was formally
carried out in 2013. These high-quality plans, which cowl greater than 1 million
Individuals, provide further selection within the medical health insurance market, and
they shield sufferers with pre-existing circumstances. The administration should
prolong these plans annually in order that these plans don’t expire. Each the Obama
and the Trump administrations routinely prolonged transitional well being plans, however
CMS has not dedicated to sustaining this bipartisan coverage for 2023 or additional
into the long run.

“To keep up the promise of ‘in the event you just like the plan you might have,
you may maintain it,’ the Obama administration issued steerage permitting state insurance coverage
regulators to allow transitional well being plans to be offered to current
clients. The Trump administration continued this coverage. Transitional well being
plans are required to guard from discrimination of a person’s well being
standing and pre-existing circumstances,” the
senators continued.  

Iowa Insurance coverage Commissioner Doug Ommen mentioned, “Since 2013,
federal authorities have offered state flexibility allowing transitional
insurance policies to proceed. Transitional plans present entry to healthcare protection
that’s seemingly in any other case unaffordable. 12 months after yr, Iowans have the
alternative to enroll in Reasonably priced Care Act (ACA) plans however many select to
keep in transitional plans to keep away from the very excessive ACA charges, particularly these
within the particular person market.”