Health care advocates are frustrated with the Obama administration’s decision to let states define the essential health benefits that will be offered through the exchanges. The politics of this move are plain enough: the Affordable Care Act remains relatively unpopular and the administration doesn’t want to expose itself to charges that it’s “taking over” the health care system as an election year approaches. But it also undermines one of the ACA’s core goals: providing a uniform set of health benefits to all uninsured Americans. Instead, we’ll likely see the same disparities that currently exist across state Medicaid programs. Some states will require insurers to offer comprehensive benefits while others will be content with bare-bones packages that fail to address the needs of people with more significant health care needs.
This is bad policy and I’m deeply disappointed in Obama for choosing this path. It will only complicate matters for those of us working to implement the next law.
