Short-Term Plans Could Bring Long-Term Risks to California’s Individual Market

The Trump administration is considering changes to federal rules regulating short-term, limited-duration insurance (“short-term plans”) that could result in the expansion of these plans in California.

This report, written by Georgetown University’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms, provides an overview of short-term plans and the current market for these plans in California. It explains how changes to federal policy around short-term plans might affect California’s individual health insurance market and describes policies that various states are pursuing in response to these changes.

Key points include:

• Short-term plans are exempt from the Affordable Care Act’s consumer protections. Insurers can deny coverage based on preexisting conditions, not cover certain services, and limit what they will pay for services. For example, many short-term plans currently available in California do not cover maternity and newborn care, mental health and substance use services, and outpatient prescription drugs. They also limit the total amount that plans will pay per day in the hospital and for particular services, such as surgeon fees, in addition to imposing a maximum the plan will spend toward claims covered by the policy.
• Short-term plans are rare right now in California, but that could change. There is only one insurer currently selling approved short-term plans in California, and fewer than 10,000 policies in effect across the state. But if the Trump administration changes federal rules, and there is no change in California law, enrollment in short-term plans is likely to grow. Under these conditions, the Urban Institute projects that over 600,000 Californians would enroll in short-term plans in 2019.
• Enrollment in short-term plans could contribute to destabilizing Covered California and increasing premiums. Short-term plans are likely to siphon off healthier and younger consumers from Covered California, which would increase premiums for those remaining in the ACA-compliant market.
• States are taking action. Colorado, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island have taken steps to ensure that short-term plans don’t destabilize their individual health insurance markets. A bill is currently pending in the California legislature banning short-term plans altogether.

The full report is available for download below.