CQC and Partners Urge President-Elect Biden to Pursue Health Insurance Reforms

Consumers for Quality Care and our partners sent an open letter to President-Elect Joe Biden urging the incoming administration to act on three common-sense areas of health insurance reform next year. 

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Dear President-Elect Biden:

The American people desperately need common-sense, bipartisan policies that will benefit health care consumers and improve the quality of insurance across the country. Even in the presence of potential partisan gridlock, there are key issues you and your administration can address to make meaningful change for Americans during these unprecedented times: 

1. Surprise Bills: Surprise bills are crippling Americans. Even insured patients who do their due diligence to ensure treatment at an in-network facility are too often hit with a surprise bill. And, even though COVID-19 testing and treatment is required by federal law to be covered, insurers are still finding loopholes to avoid paying and consumers are being stuck with the bill

President-Elect Biden, please take action to eliminate surprise medical bills. 

2. Junk Insurance: Over the last four years, we have seen a rise in short-term, limited-duration health insurance plans (STLDIs). These bare-bones plans provide limited coverage, give no protection for pre-existing conditions, and expose consumers to financial risks. 

President-Elect Biden, please abolish or, at the very least, scale back these harmful plans.

3. Limiting Cost-Sharing Assistance for Prescriptions: While millions of Americans are losing their jobs, struggling with COVID-19, and trying to make ends meet, a recently-finalized HHS rule will increase out-of-pocket costs for lifesaving prescription drugs by allowing the expansion of insurance company co-pay accumulator adjustment programs. These programs jeopardize the patient assistance consumers use to lower their drug costs at the pharmacy counter. 

President-Elect Biden, please rescind this harmful rule. 

The need for immediate, meaningful insurance reform is more dire now than ever. Americans need the security of knowing their health insurance will protect them from surprise billing, unexpectedly high deductibles, and increasing out-of-pocket costs. You and your administration have the opportunity to better the lives of the countless Americans struggling with health care costs, and we urge you to swiftly enact these common-sense reforms. 

Sincerely,