Stuart M. Gerson and Adam C. Solander, Members of the Firm in the Litigation and Health Care & Life Sciences practices, in the firm’s New York and Washington, DC, offices, were quoted in Modern Healthcare, in “Executive Order Seeks to Weaken ACA Insurance Rules, Another Would End Cost-Sharing Payments,” by Harris Meyer.
Following is an excerpt:
Frustrated by the failure of GOP efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday to ease ACA rules and give individuals and businesses access to cheaper health plans with fewer benefits and consumer protections. …
“Many commentators including me think the law should be changed to foster competition across state lines,” said Stuart Gerson, a former top Justice Department official in the George H.W. Bush and Clinton administrations who’s now a partner at Epstein Becker & Green. “But I don’t think you can solve this problem without changing the law. It has to be done by statute, not regulation.”
Trump’s order would have to be implemented through the standard federal notice-and-comment process for federal agency rulemaking. That means any changes, particularly for AHPs, likely would take months and would not come in time for the 2018 plan year.
But consumers could potentially switch from standard individual-market plans to the liberalized short-term plans in the middle of the year. “It’s possible somebody could drop coverage and enroll in a limited duration plan, depending on how the rules are written,” said Adam Solander, also a partner at Epstein Becker & Green.
