Understanding short-term limited duration health insurance
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Series Title(s):
- Issue brief (Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation)
- Author(s):
- Pollitz, Karen, author Long, Michelle, author Semanskee, Ashley, author Kamal, Rabah, author
- Contributor(s):
- Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, issuing body.
- Publication:
- San Francisco, CA : Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, April 2018
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Insurance, Health -- organization & administration Health Insurance Exchanges Insurance Benefits Insurance Coverage State Government Humans United States United States.
- Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- Short-term, limited duration (STLD) health insurance has long been offered to individuals through the non-group market and through associations. The product was designed for people who experience a temporary gap in health coverage.1 Unlike other products that are considered "limited benefit" or "excepted benefit" policies--such as cancer-only policies or hospital indemnity policies that pay a fixed dollar benefit per inpatient stay--short-term policies are generally considered to be "major medical" coverage; however, short-term policies are distinguished from other comprehensive major medical policies because they only provide coverage for a limited term, typically less than 365 days. Short-term policies are also characterized by other significant limitations, including the types of services covered, often with a dollar maximum. Late last year, Congress repealed the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate penalty, the requirement that individuals have minimum essential health coverage or face a tax penalty. Starting in 2019, the tax penalty will be reduced to $0. It is possible this change could lead more consumers to consider purchasing short-term policies. In addition, late last year, President Trump issued an executive order directing the Secretary of Health and Human Services to take steps to expand the availability of short-term health insurance policies, and a proposed regulation to increase the maximum coverage term under such policies was published in February. This brief provides background information on short-term policies and how they differ from ACA-compliant health plans.
- Copyright:
- Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY license. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (9 pages)).
- NLM Unique ID:
- 101740246 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101740246