The White House is said to be finalizing a plan to expand healthcare options for consumers, but questions remain.
The executive order from President Trump would reportedly expand health plans offered by associations to allow individuals to pool together and buy insurance outside their states. Plans offering fewer benefits might also be allowed. The idea is to help bring down premiums and deductibles through choice and competition.
Hadley Heath Manning of the Independent Women's Forum (IWF) sees this as an escape hatch of sorts.
"It would give people who pool in associations more freedom over what type of insurance to buy, and some of those consumers may choose to buy less coverage than what is currently required under the Affordable Care Act," she says. "That's a choice that [many of us] believe consumers should have, but of course regulators at the state level and insurance carriers themselves may take issue with this because it gets in their way of their business or what they see as their role in the insurance industry."
The Associated Press reports this may still cause problems for the Affordable Care Act, if healthier people move toward plans with lower premiums and fewer benefits. But Manning contends there's already a lot of instability because of the difficult position in which the Affordable Care Act puts consumers.
"Offering those people a third option, a plan I'm sure many on the left would say is 'skimpy,' but I would say it's more basic, it's more affordable – it may look more like catastrophic coverage," she tells OneNewsNow.
"But that option for those consumers is not only going to be good for them, it's going to be good for the insurance market overall giving people more options that fit their individual needs and preferences."