A naturalization ceremony inTucson, Arizona. (Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg)
President Donald Trump has issued a proclamation that could givesales of some niche health insurance products a boost.
|The president is moving to require some types of would-beimmigrants to show that they have health coverage or equivalentarrangements in place when they apply for immigrant visas.
|Related: Leave health insurers out of immigrant eligibility,AHIP says
|"Data show that lawful immigrants are about three times morelikely than United States citizens to lack health insurance,"according to the proclamation. "Immigrants who enter this countryshould not further saddle our health care system, and subsequentlyAmerican taxpayers, with higher costs."
|The new rules will apply starting Nov. 3, according to theproclamation.
|In the past, litigation has delayed the effective date of somerules the Trump administration has tried to apply to non-U.S.citizens traveling to the United States.
|Who would be affected?
Under the terms of the proclamation, the proclamation ruleswill apply only to people who get visas on or after theproclamation effective date, not to people who already haveimmigrant visas.
|The policy would not apply to tourists, refugees, asylumseekers, or some other classes of visa holders.
|Approved health insurance
Under the terms of the rules described in the proclamation,"approved health insurance" would include:
- Group health coverage.
- An individual major medical insurance policy purchased withoutuse of an Affordable Care Act premium tax credit subsidy.
- A short-term health insurance policy designed to stay in effectfor at least 364 days, or until the beginning of planned, extendedtravel outside the United States.
- A catastrophic plan.
- A family member's plan.
- Medicare.
- "A visitor health insurance plan that provides adequatecoverage for medical care as determined by the secretary of Healthand Human Services or his designee."
The HHS secretary could also classify other forms of coverage asacceptable coverage.
|For individuals over age 18, "approved health insurance" wouldnot include Medicaid. The term would also exclude coveragepurchased with an Affordable Care Act premium tax creditsubsidy.
|Resources
A copy of the Trump proclamation is available here.
|Read more:
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Allison Bell
Allison Bell, ThinkAdvisor's insurance editor, previously was LifeHealthPro's health insurance editor. She has a bachelor's degree in economics from Washington University in St. Louis and a master's degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at @Think_Allison.
