Insurance agents will be selling health coverage and health savings accounts directly to all consumers if a leading Republican has his way.
Days before the presidential primary season begins in Iowa, GOP frontrunner Ted Cruz proposed separating health insurance and employers so that people wouldn’t lose their plan if they switched or lost jobs.
In other words, agents would no longer work with commercial accounts to select employee health plans and other benefits.
The comments came in the final Republican presidential debate before the Iowa caucuses begin. Though healthcare was consigned to a background discussion, Cruz and others outlined their plans for the future of health insurance.
Cruz decried the current system as a “job killer” that has caused huge increases in premiums and forced people to drop their preferred doctors. Instead, the Texas senator said he would “repeal every word” of the Affordable Care Act and encourage Americans to carry inexpensive catastrophic insurance coverage only, rather than policies that cover preventive care.
Congress has already passed a bill to repeal the ACA as well as to cut funding from Planned Parenthood, but it was quickly vetoed by President Barack Obama. GOP lawmakers have said that they intend to make the repeal effort again once a Republican president is elected.
Separating the nation’s employers from the health insurance system has long been a talking point among both Republicans and Democrats, though few have proposed an alternative solution.
In fact, the ACA’s establishment of public health insurance marketplaces was intended to give consumers options outside of employer-provided health coverage.
Other candidates at last week’s debate stopped short of such proposals, though Ohio Governor John Kasich brought up mental health coverage, saying treatment should be available to those suffering from illnesses and addiction problems rather than incarceration.
Meanwhile, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said he would reduce federal spending on healthcare, first by defunding Planned Parenthood.
