Pulling the Plug (Again?) on Short-Term Health Plans

On July 12, the Biden administration issued a proposed rule to substantially shorten the maximum length of short-term, limited-duration (STLD) insurance plans. A volley of regulatory shots involving those alternatives to more regulated (and mostly taxpayer-subsidized) individual market insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) began in 2016, with similar efforts by the Obama administration to restrict their length to only three months. However, a Trump administration rule in 2018 restored STLD plans to last as long as 364 days and potentially be renewable for up to three years.