Shaheen Votes to Reverse Trump Administration’s Rule Expanding Junk Health Insurance Plans

Trump Administration’s Rule Expanding Junk Health Insurance Plans is the Latest Effort to Sabotage the Affordable Care Act

(Washington, DC) –  U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) issued the following statement after voting for a resolution to reverse the Trump Administration’s final rule on short-term, limited duration health insurance plans, which are also known as “junk plans.” These plans would increase costs and reduce access to quality coverage for American families. Additionally, they would further destabilize health insurance markets, result in higher premiums for older Americans and put the health care for millions of people living with pre-existing conditions at risk. The resolution ultimately did not pass. 

“These junk insurance policies will subject patients to sky-high medical bills, erode protections for pre-existing conditions, cover fewer vital services that patients need and undermine the stability of health insurance markets,” said Shaheen. “The expansion of junk plans is yet another example of the Trump administration’s targeted effort to undermine the protections that the Affordable Care Act provides for millions of people living with pre-existing conditions, including more than 572,000 Granite Staters. We cannot go back to a broken health insurance system that makes it more expensive, if not impossible, to find coverage when you get sick. The Senate should come together in a bipartisan manner and reject the administration’s continued actions to sabotage the Affordable Care Act and instead work to tackle a fundamental concern for all of our constituents: rising health care costs.”

Shaheen has consistently opposed efforts to sabotage healthcare for Americans, and sent a letter in April calling on the Trump administration to halt expansion of these junk health insurance plans. 

Shaheen has led efforts in the Senate that would provide marketplace stability by permanently funding and increasing eligibility for cost-sharing reduction payments. Her bill, the Marketplace Certainty Act, would make cost-sharing reduction payments permanent and expand eligibility to more working Americans. Senator Shaheen also helped introduce the Individual Health Insurance Marketplace Improvement Act to create a permanent reinsurance program for the individual health insurance market, similar to the successful programs used to lower premiums and spur competition in the Medicare Part D program. Shaheen also joined a bipartisan group of senators in support of the Bipartisan Health Care Stabilization Act of 2017, which would lower premiums and improve quality of care for patients and families across the nation.