New healthcare games will make coverage and costs worse
Wittman endorses a plan where pre-existing conditions are once again allowed
Wittman is at it again: more disinformation about lowering our healthcare costs.
Wittman spoke to the Virginia Mercury about the Lowering Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act (H. R. 6703), introduced by a Republican from Iowa, and — as usual — his strategy is to wildly mislead anyone who’s not paying close attention. This is more of Wittman’s performative politics; yet again, he’s playing with your healthcare and that of everyone you love.
“Association health plans” will solve little and make healthcare more expensive
The core of the proposal is to “expand association health plans by allowing small businesses and self-employed people to band together to purchase insurance.” Wittman says:
“Anything that you buy in bulk or in mass or in quantity, you get a reduction in price,” he added. “And that’s what the idea is here.”
and
“We don’t do enough to encourage patients to pursue preventive care and healthier lifestyles,” Wittman said. “It’s about a system based on reimbursement for treatment, not trying to put resources out there for healthy behaviors.”
That doesn’t sound awful, right? But pay attention to that phrase: “association health plans.” In January we wrote about how Wittman broke healthcare and said this about his attempts to “reform” healthcare:
The reality is that Wittman’s “solutions” only address symptoms of his party’s interference and calculated undermining of the ACA, not the root causes of spiraling healthcare costs and unequal access. He suggests short-term insurance plans and association health plans. These types of plans evade ACA consumer protections and cherry-pick healthy enrollees. That then raises premiums for everyone with comprehensive health insurance plans by 2-3%. [Our emphasis.]
So these plans are not a solution to spiraling healthcare costs or getting more people covered. Put simply, association health plans (AHPs) are not the same as regular health insurance.
Market segmentation and “cherry-picking” is the biggest danger of AHPs. These plans attract younger, healthier enrollees with lower premiums by sidestepping ACA risk-pooling requirements. When those healthy people exit the ACA’s small-group and individual markets in large numbers, the remaining pool skews sicker, driving premiums higher for everyone who stays.
Weaker consumer protections are another major risk. Before the ACA, AHPs could legally deny coverage or charge higher premiums based on pre-existing conditions like cancer or chronic illness. Expanding AHPs effectively recreates that two-tier system: good, cheap coverage for the healthy; expensive or denied coverage for anyone who actually needs care.
Fraud and insolvency have historically plagued AHPs. Georgetown University researchers found that exempting AHPs from state oversight “would create a regulatory vacuum” that allows scam operators to flourish, leaving consumers with “bankruptcy, delayed or foregone medical care, and loss of coverage”.
Skimpier benefits compound all these risks. AHPs are not required to cover the ACA’s essential health benefits — like maternity care or mental health services — particularly when operating across state lines. This means enrollees may discover their coverage is inadequate precisely when they need it most.
Our area — the one Wittman claims to represent — is at particular risk
This bill (H. R. 6703) would intensify the healthcare strain our area is already experiencing thanks to Wittman’s support of last year’s H. R. 1 (the “One Big Beautiful [Horrible] Bill”, a.k.a. “The Working Families Tax Cut Act”, a.k.a. whatever name Republican Propaganda Central next deems a winner):
33,000 Virginians have already dropped coverage
Virginia clinics have closed and hospitals have scaled back services
Medicaid cuts have harmed the Tidewater and Central Virginia economies
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says that H. R. 6703 will reduce the number of insured Americans by 100,000 people every year through 2035. Further, as people move to AHPs, the costs for everyone else on regular health insurance plans via their employers or the ACA will skyrocket.
Our rural neighbors, who are disproportionately older, less wealthy, and more likely to have chronic conditions, are the least likely to qualify for or benefit from AHP coverage at all. That means they’re most likely to be left behind in a destabilized ACA market with rapidly increasing prices. So of course fewer people will get health insurance. As uninsured rates rise, hospitals will have to absorb more uncompensated care, negotiate higher rates with remaining private insurers, and may reduce or close services. The feedback loop is particularly vicious in rural districts with fewer healthcare providers to absorb the shock.
So to sum up, here’s what Wittman says about H. R. 6703 (and remember they’re calling this the “Lowering Health Care Costs for All Americans Act”) versus the actual evidence:
Wittman wants to assure your vote, not your healthcare
This bill, and Wittman’s support for it, are wildly dangerous for our district and our families. Healthinsurance.org analyst Louise Norris acknowledges that while some healthier consumers might see lower premiums with H. R. 6703, “the issue is it harms enrollees over time,” and anyone “could suddenly be in need of six-figure medical care next week”.
More seriously, Wittman is again failing to address the ACA tax credit expiration already costing thousands of Virginians their coverage - a crisis that H.R. 6703 sidesteps entirely. Of course, this is Wittman’s intention: to appear to be doing something while actually doing nothing. He is ignoring our needs, feeding us this empty, dangerous nonsense while he and his Republican colleagues in Congress continue to enrich themselves while failing to serve their districts.
Rob Wittman may seem harmless. He is not harmless. Wittman’s support for life-threatening legislation like H. R. 6703 demonstrates his feckless complicity with a deteriorating administration that — if we let it — will bring America to its knees for generations to come.