President Joe Biden announced several administrative initiatives to minimize medical debt, eliminate hidden fees, and prevent unexpected medical expenditures.
Biden has stated that the new laws will aim to combat fraudulent insurance policies and surprise medical bills, which affect millions of Americans monthly and circumvent federal consumer protections.
Biden Administration’s Targeted Sectors
The White House has announced that they are working on new proposed guidelines that will aim to fix a regulatory loophole that has allowed firms to deceive taxpayers into buying junk insurance products that provide little to no coverage.
With Biden’s order, health insurance providers would have to be transparent about the coverage gaps that come with short-term policies.
The president ran down a list of sectors that have been subject to his administration’s garbage charge crackdown: banks, hotels, concerts, tickets, flights, cable, the Internet, and the Internet itself.
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Protecting Consumers from Unreasonable Medical Debt
Airlines would also be compelled to eliminate family seating fees and declare all fees up front under the new regulations. Biden also wants to get rid of the extra, unnecessary fees that are sometimes added to event tickets.
The plan incorporates new measures to safeguard patients against questionable insurance plans that have burdened consumers with unreasonable medical debt via an ACA loophole.
President Biden has ordered a coordinated investigation into allegations that healthcare providers and others illegally pushed subpar insurance packages onto unsuspecting customers.
According to the White House, the initiative will also target medical credit cards and loans, which can lead to greater prices for consumers who aren’t aware of the potential consequences.
Overdraft and bounced check fees cost customers over $5 billion annually; Biden wants to limit these fees.
The White House, meanwhile, has placed blame on the Obama administration for laws that were too vague and thus allowed insurers to deny coverage to those with pre-existing diseases.
To protect consumers from being charged more than necessary for hospital stays, Biden wanted to plug a loophole that allowed insurance companies to take advantage of the in-network classification by saying certain health institutions were actually out-of-network.
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Source: NEWSBREAK