Buried in the fine print of Obamacare regulations, the Trump administration is floating a novel idea for those who can’t afford to shell out tens of thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket medical costs.
Why not borrow the money from your health insurance company?
In the dense 1,121-page final rule issued last month about how the Affordable Care Act market will operate next year, the administration suggested that insurers consider offering loans to cash-strapped customers.
Under this approach, people who develop a costly disease or need unexpected emergency care would be able to turn to their health insurer for loans to cover their share of the bill. The debt, though, would have to be repaid, presumably with interest.
Trump administration officials say the idea is a way to help people who chose a plan with a low monthly premium and high out-of-pocket costs, but unexpectedly encounter a devastating medical bill.
At a time when more than a third of American households already have some kind of medical debt, experts expressed dismay at the possibility of adding to the strained budgets of people already dealing with higher health care costs.
“The last thing you want to do is to increase deductibles and load people up with more medical debt,” said Neale Mahoney, an economist at Stanford University. “It seems to be hugely out of touch with where people are.”
