While the Trump administration has been busy chipping away at the provisions of the Affordable Care Act, it's also been expanding some alternative, lower-cost options, including short-term health insurance plans. And as the administration faces legal challenges to its attacks on the ACA, last week it earned a win against a legal challenge to its 2018 decision to expand short-term health plan term limits.

On Friday, in a 2 to 1 decision, a court of appeals rejected an argument that the Trump administration acted beyond its scope and in conflict with the intent of the law. Judges Thomas Griffith and Gregory Katsas, who upheld the rule, wrote: "To be sure, Congress hoped that most individuals would purchase ACA-compliant plans as their primary insurance, and it provided incentives to encourage them to do so. But it did not foreclose other options."

Short-term plans, intended to be used as a stop-gap for individuals who have lost health insurance, were originally capped at 90 days. They were also exempt from many of the provisions required of health plans under the ACA, which meant that for many individuals they were more affordable–though they also provided less coverage. In 2018, the Trump administration extended the 90-day limit to 364, a move that drew criticism from some in the health care industry and prompted a lawsuit from the Association for Community Affiliated Plans.

The ACAP argued that the administration had essentially created a "shadow" market of non-ACA compliant plans, which would destabilize the ACA markets. "So long as junk insurance plans are permitted to compete directly with comprehensive, Affordable Care Act-compliant insurance plans, the healthcare protections of the ACA—and the consumers who rely on them— are in jeopardy," ACAP said in a statement.

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Appeals court upholds short-term health plan expansion

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