miami herald

tangentially related to coronavirus but more directly to the trump admin rollback of parts of the ACA and junk insurance that’s filling the vacuum

In 2018, President Donald Trump’s administration rolled back Affordable Care Act regulations and allowed so-called “junk plans” in the market. Consumers mistakenly assume that the plans with lower monthly costs will be better than no insurance at all in case of a medical catastrophe, but often the plans aren’t very different from going without insurance altogether.

Hospital officials at Jackson told the Miami Herald that, based on his insurance, Azcue would only be responsible for $1,400 of that bill, but Azcue said he heard from his insurer that he would also have to provide additional documentation: three years of medical records to prove that the flu he got didn’t relate to a preexisting condition.

sure. that’s how they sell this nonsense.
if you have a preexisting condition you can get insurance, so yeah, ‘you’re covered’.
but the plan wont pay anything