To Counter #TrumpSabotage, CA Legislature Must Pass Ban on Junk Insurance

Yesterday, the Trump Administration’s Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced a final rule to extend the use of short-term health insurance plans from the current three-month span to a full year, with renewals for up to three years. You can’t much call them “short-term” anymore.

Following this announcement, California consumer advocates are urging the passage of legislation to ban such substandard insurance from being sold in our state. SB 910, by Senator Ed Hernandez, would prevent this new, giant loophole that would allow insurers to deny people for pre-existing conditions, arbitrarily cap coverage, and otherwise undermine our individual insurance markets. These limited plans also target and siphon off younger, healthier people, destabilizing the individual insurance market and spiking premiums for traditional insurance. SB 910 has already passed the California State Senate and is pending for a vote as early as next week on the California Assembly floor.

» Contact your Assemblymember to support SB 910!

These junk health plans collect premiums from patients, but may not cover them when they actually need care, imperiling the finances of those who buy this substandard coverage, but also spikes premiums and destabilizes the insurance market for everybody else.

California can not go back to the bad old days where coverage didn’t cover basic treatments or ran out prematurely.

The California Legislature should act immediately to shield consumers from these Trump Administration attacks on our patient protections and health system by passing SB 910.


The bill is part of the #Care4AllCA package of legislative priorities to shield consumers from the sabotage of the Trump Administration’s attacks on the Affordable Care Act and our health system, and to take steps toward a more universal, affordable, and accountable health system in California.