Trump adds high-risk pools to healthcare plan

by Peter Sullivan - 10/06/16 11:40 AM ET

Donald Trump has added to his healthcare plan a “high-risk pool” for sick enrollees — a traditional Republican idea long dismissed by Democrats.

{mosads}The unannounced change in the Republican presidential nominee’s healthcare plan comes as a bullet point in a new healthcare page on his website.

The new bullet point reads: “Work with states to establish high-risk pools to ensure access to coverage for individuals who have not maintained continuous coverage.”

High-risk pools offer coverage for sick people that otherwise could be denied coverage for having a pre-existing condition if ObamaCare’s protections were repealed, as Trump proposes.

Premiums there are typically much higher and are subsidized by the government. Democrats have long argued that states tried high-risk pools before ObamaCare and they didn’t work, in part because Republicans were not willing to put in enough government money to provide proper financial assistance to make the coverage affordable.

Trump’s new healthcare page also leaves out some of his previous proposals, but the new page links to a document that still contains all of the previous proposals.

“The policy page has been refreshed with new content, but the plan hasn’t changed,” a Trump campaign spokesperson said.

Trump’s plan centers on repealing ObamaCare and then providing a tax deduction for premium payments. It would also allow insurance to be sold across state lines.

An analysis from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget in March found that Trump’s healthcare plan would lead to 21 million people losing coverage. Repealing ObamaCare would cause 22 million people to lose coverage, and Trump’s replacements would only add back around 1 million, the study found.

On the campaign trail, though, Trump himself has often promised to “take care of everybody,” puzzling experts who say the actual plan on his website would not live up to that task.

Tags Donald Trump