Leading National Health and Business Organizations Join Campaign to Protect Quality Health Care for Working Americans
Keep US Covered Announces Six Partners Join Campaign Urging Biden Administration to Roll Back Trump-era Individual Coverage HRA & Junk Insurance Rules
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May 13, 2021
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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Keep US Covered today announced that six campaign partners have joined the effort to protect quality health care for working Americans. Each of these organizations has added their voice and support to a campaign focused on urging the Biden Administration and Congress to pursue policy changes that support equity in workplace health benefits, protect basic coverage standards, and seek to eliminate disparities by taking into account the non-clinical factors that impact health outcomes. Keep US Covered is seeking the reversal of Trump-era regulations that created Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangements (ICHRAs), which may provide weaker and costlier benefits while creating a potentially discriminatory, expensive system; and expanded short-term limited duration insurance (STLDI), which leaves many Americans underinsured and vulnerable to expensive medical bills.
The campaign partners announced today are listed below:
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“We are thrilled to partner with these amazing organizations that represent such a diverse and important group of stakeholders in our mission to protect and strengthen quality coverage for working Americans,” said Keep US Covered Executive Director Sonja Nesbit. “To have strong voices from the patient, provider, health policy, and business communities join our campaign demonstrates the widespread understanding that ICHRAs and junk insurance are harmful and potentially discriminatory policies that need to be quickly addressed by the Biden Administration.”
“Keep US Covered is focused on a critical goal – strengthening health coverage for all people by reversing two rules that stand in the way. We’re proud to be a campaign partner and fully support this effort,” said Emily Stewart, Executive Director of Community Catalyst.
President Biden’s January Executive Order asked relevant federal agencies to review the ICHRA and STLDI policies and consider “suspending, revising, or rescinding” them. Keep US Covered supports swift action from the Administration to roll back these damaging approaches to health policy. As it pushes to strengthen health equity through the reversal of these two policies, Keep US Covered also seeks a greater emphasis on societal factors that impact health – known as the social determinants of health – in federal policymaking.
"For 11 years, the Affordable Care Act has increased coverage, invested in preventative care that reduces long-term costs, created coverage for pre-existing conditions, and provided small businesses with the bargaining power they need to manage their health care costs," said Jim Doyle, President of Business Forward. "Junk plans are a bad deal for employees, but they also undermine the hard-won, structural gains we've made. The same is true for ICHRAs, which open the door for haves and have-nots in our health care system. We can't afford to go backwards."
Keep US Covered and its partners are working together to educate policymakers on ICHRAs, STLDI and the social determinants of health to build consensus for action to protect and strengthen the health care system for all Americans. To learn more, visit KeepUSCovered.org or follow the campaign on Twitter and Facebook.